Ancient Fury
by American-Gentlemen96
Summary: The world of the shinobi was been built on on the legends and stories of those who came before. Though some legends would become infamous, most of them would be forgotten from memory. But some are not easily forgotten as others. Be weary, for the Dragon Sage has returned. Language, violence, minor sexual references.
1. Prologue

Prologue: The Ancient Flame Reborn (Rewritten)

"Talking"

 _Flashback_

" **Thinking"**

 _ **Attack/Jutsu**_

Disclaimer: All of you know I don't own this franchise.

* * *

(Outland Swamps, Land of Rain)

" **Why does it always rain around here?"**

The young blonde whiskered haired boy thought to himself. For days he had been walking through the raging storm hoping to find a small town or even farmhouse to shelter himself from the downpour. The dirty rags he called clothing were completely soaked and clung to his scrawny malnourished body. The boy's stomach let out a deep growl that made his face contort in pain. He clutched his midsection in attempted to hold back the hunger pains. It felt like a pack of wild dogs gorging themselves on the boy's intestines. Unfortunately for the boy the action was in vain and the pain persisted. But he kept walking down the overgrown dirt road to wherever it lead.

" **There has to be some berries or something around here to eat. I can't take it anymore."** The boy thought, **"That place may have been bad but at least they feed me…most of the time."**

Out of the corner of his eye, the boy stopped and saw a cave peeking through the tree line. A tiny shred of joy spread through the boy as he rushed towards the earthy hovel. The boy, without an ounce of care or caution, walked into the dark damp cave. Even though there was no source of light, the boy could make out the outlines of the walls and the stones laying on the floor. He shrugged his shoulders as he proceed to walk deeper into the cave.

"At least I'm out of the rain."

The eerie silence of cave didn't help settle the boy's anxiety as the sounds of the rain and thunder echoed throughout the earthy interior. Why did all the bad things happened to him? First those mean villagers ran him out of the village and then those men took him away to this land. Sure he wasn't always the nicest and pranked people who were mean to him, but he didn't deserved this. All the boy wanted to do was see the old man again and his home village. Was that too much to ask-

The boy eyes widen as he felt the rock beneath his feet gave way. The boy grunted in pain as he tumbled down a long earthen tunnel head downwards. He tried to grab onto anything and even dug his boney figures into the dirt just to stop, but nothing worked. To him it felt like an eternity as he just kept on sliding down till he flew out of tunnel and landed on a hard stone surface. The boy could feel his copper tasting blood began to pool in his mouth. The young blonde simply laid there on the floor as he started to cough up blood. After some time laying there the boy struggled to get back onto his feet, stumbling a few times in the process. But once he stood up the boy looked around at his surroundings.

The boy was astonished as the massive cavern before him. It had to roughly be the same size of his village, perhaps even bigger. A large pool of crystal clear water sat at the bottom of the cavern that illuminated the whole area in a deep blue tint. A cluster of small islands sat above the water with strips of strips of land connect them together and to rocky shores of the reservoir. But what had the boy intrigued the most was the collection of buildings that sat upon the islands, especially the walled temple complex sitting on the top of a tall hill on the largest island. The boy didn't understand why, but he couldn't help but feel drawn to that building. Like something in him was screaming at him to go there. So the boy slowly walked over to one of the land bridges connecting to the large island and made his way across.

The boy's curiosity about this place only increased once he step on the island. The crumbling buildings and cobble stone streets overgrown with vegetation had clearly shown their age. The skeletons sprawled out on the ground or leaning against a building did scare the boy, they were long since dead and there was nothing he could do about it. Even though most of them had old rags covering their frames, some of the skeletons had on rusted pieces of armor similar to those people the old man told him about. Samurai, if he remembered correctly. But to the boy, all these things could wait. He needed to make it up the stairs leading to the temple.

After a tiring walk up the stairs, the boy stood before a broken down archway entrance to the complex. Once past the walls and entrance the boy was greeted by the sight of a large grassy stone plaza with a shallow stone cut pool of water in the middle. Three large one-story wooden buildings lined the courtyard, looking as if they were about to crumble at any moment. The sight of even more skeletons like the ones all over the island didn't surprise the boy. He was too far occupied with the building at the opposite end of the complex to care about the decayed bodies.

The boy walked over to the building, passing by the skeletal remains of the former people without care, before he was upon the entrance to said building. An old torn blue curtain was hung over the doorway of the building. The boy paid it no attention as he pushed it aside and walked into the decayed structure.

The interior of the building perfectly reflected the outside of the cavern, decayed and destroyed. Sections of the roof had caved in with a few skeletons underneath piles of rotten wood. The wood floor was dried and crack to a point where every step the boy took a creaking sound immediately followed. There was no doubt that this place had seen far better days then right now. But the object on the other side of the room attracted the boy's attention more than anything else.

Sitting on an ornate pedestal was a red scroll with flames like patterns sketch on the paper and a white cord binding it all together. The boy walked across the room and towards the pedestal as if he was guided by a supernatural presence. He stood before the pedestal and pick up the scroll and untied the cord. The boy grabbed sat down on the old wooden floor and begun to read the contents of the scroll. Yet the faded kanji on the parchment weren't sentences, but a list of names instead.

The boy looked on perplexed at the contents of the scroll. He had never seen a scroll with just names written in it. Most of the times there was ether pictures of people/animals doing miscellaneous things or weird phrases like the ones the old man would tell him. His master didn't like him and the other people looking at scrolls or books. Though when the boy did had just the tiniest amount of free time he would sneak off and silently read whatever he could get his hands on.

As the boy continued to make sense of the scroll, he failed to notice the blood running down his mouth begun to fall onto the paper. It wasn't until the entire lower end of the scroll became stained in blood did the boy finally take notice. He furiously tried to wipe away the crimson liquid, only to have it stain the paper even worse. Unfortunately for the blonde child the situation continued to deteriorate.

An explosion of white smoke erupted from the scroll engulfed the boy. The boy felt weightless in the cloud, as if he was falling from the sky. His eyelids felt heavy as his vision was quickly fading to black. The last sight the boy saw before he lost consciousness was the feint sight of a forest and a humid sensation against his skin.

* * *

(Unknown location)

Sunlight peeked through the window of the limestone hut and hit the face of the sleeping boy. He turned over on the bed and brought the blanket up to shield his face from the light. The boy's eyes shot open as he just realized, he was in a bed with blankets over him. He threw off the blankets and tumbled off of the furniture, landing face first on the hard dirt floor. After a moment of clutching his face, the boy looked up to see his surroundings.

The interior of the home and the furniture was rather basic in design. The roof and wall were carved out limestone with the floor flatten dirt. The only furniture in the small home, other than the bed was a wooden table and four chairs near the door. The boy was only curious about the home for only but a moment when his gaze stopped at the table. Sitting on top of the table were bowls filled with fruit and plates of cooked meats. Without a second thought, the boy launched himself towards the banquet before him and begun to scarfing down the food.

After getting his fill, the boy leaned back into the chair and relaxed. Whoever brought him here and set the prepared the food was clearly okay in the boy's book. That wasn't even mentioning his raggy clothes being replaced by a clean yellow gi. But as the moments pass by the boy's curiosity on where he was only grew. He was sure it wasn't anywhere near his master's home, there was always overcast. The boy got up from his seat and proceed to walk through the door to the outside.

Once the boy stepped out of the home his eye were assaulted by the bright light of the sun. He immediately brought up his hand to shield his face from the light. But once the boy's eyes adjusted, the landscape left him in awe. The valley before him stretched beyond the horizon with a luscious sprawling jungle covering the ground. A mighty river cut through the dense forest below as the sound of the roaring waters echoed throughout the valley. The mountains reached up towards the sky and clouds like earthen teeth cutting through fluffy white wool. Yet it was the sky that caught and drew the boy's attention most. Instead of light blue the sky was now yellow with streaks of purple running across the heavens. The boy had no words to express the beauty that was in front of his eyes.

"Aww you're finally awake. I was starting to get worried." A high pitched voice spoke out.

The boy gave a little jump when he heard the voice. Turning his head he didn't find someone standing next to him, it was instead a lizard yet at the same time it wasn't. The creature looked like one of the pets his master kept, an Iguana if he could recall right, but it had bat-like wings growing out of its back along with a pair of black horns coming out of its head. The boy stared at the green scaled lizard as the creature looked at him with its orange silted eyes waiting for a response.

"Di-did you just talk?" The boy asked the creature

"Yeah I did. Do you see anyone else here?"

"I must have hit my head hard to have some weird lizard talking to- OWW what was that for!" The boy rubbed his forehead from the creature slapping its tail against his head.

"Watch who you call lizard brat! I'm a proud member of the Dragon Clan, so watch your tongue." The small dragon shouted back at the boy.

"A dragon? That can't be true, dragons only exist in stories."

"Dragons are real kid, one standing before you right now. Besides what did you expect? You did sign our summoning contract after all."

"What the heck's a summoning contract?"

The dragon was perplexed by the boy's question.

"Umm it's the scroll that you signed with your blood. Don't tell me you signed it by accident haha." The dragon laughed but after a moment of awkward silence his laughter died down with its jaw hanging wide open and his eyes staring at the boy in absolute shock. "Oh kami you're serious."

"It wasn't like I planned on signing your contract to begin with. I was just trying get out of the rain by going hiding in this cave. But then I fell down this hole to a bigger cave with some old buildings. Then I found this scroll where some of my blood accidently got spilled onto the paper. And now I'm here talking to a dragon. I didn't plan on this today." The boy finished. "Besides where is here anyway?"

" **Boss isn't going to happy about this…"** the dragon thought, "Well kid you're in the summoning world where all summoning clans reside. More specifically you're in the area where the great Dragon Clan live. When you signed our contract the Boss brought you here to see if you are worthy of summoning us."

"Boss? Worthy? What are you talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough kid. Boss told me to bring you to him once you woke up. Now come on, we don't want to keep him waiting."

"Okay then, lead the way. Ohh I never asked you, what's your name?"

"You can call me The Messenger, or just Messenger for short. Now let's go."

"Okay so where do we-what are you doing?"

The boy asked as the Messenger flew up onto his shoulder and the both of them started to glow in a bright yellow light. His felt like he was falling through the air as his surroundings began to slowly morph from cliff overlooking the valley to a blur of green. And in a mere instant the yellow light that covered the boy and the Messenger faded away. As the Messenger leaped off his shoulder, the boy looked around to see he was now standing in a clearing with the jungle surrounding the small dirt area. But when the boy saw what was in front of him, to say he was astonished would be an understatement.

The mountain standing before the boy was like any other one in the valley, except for a few details. Carved into the granite stone of the mountain was a massive square archway being held up by five stone columns with depictions of dragons wrapping around each pillars. The roof of the archway depicted symbols of fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning entering a circle with ripple-like designs sketched within. Even the steps were nearly half the height of the boy.

"If you're done sightseeing we should keep going." Messenger said

The two walked up the steps leading into the mountain and passed under the archway. The boy still could not help but feel amazed at the whole design of this place. Whoever, or whatever, created this place was no doubt the most skilled builder to ever exist. Passing through entrance, the duo was meet with a long vaulted corridor with rows of large stone fire pits against the walls. On the walls were depictions of random scenes with people and animals doing things that made little sense to the boy. Never in his life did the boy believe he would walking through a place like this. Not even standing on top of the Hokage monument back in his village filled him with this much sense of wonder. But that sense of wonder was quickly replaced by freight once the boy started hearing the sound of deep breathing echo throughout the halls. Breathing that couldn't be made by some small creature or human.

It was long before the boy and the Messenger came across another archway leading into gigantic room. The boy couldn't help but feeling insignificant once he pass through the archway. The room was nearly as large as the cavern back in the real world, but instead of natural formation the interior of the room showed signs of clear masonry with triangular geometric designs covering the circular walls. Near the edges of the room was a small canal filled with water that circled around the room and towards the center of the room. And at the center of the room sat an elevated piece of finely cut stone, but it was the gigantic dragon that laid on the stone that held the boy's attention.

The creature had a long serpent-like body similar to a snake with no wings visible. Blue scales and a white underbelly as a long strip of white hair running along its spine that end with a plume of hair on the tip of its tail. A pair of deer antlers pointed out of the mane of white hair that sat upon its narrow reptilian head. Two long whiskers like a catfish rested under the dragon's nostrils and above its mouth. The Boss uncoiled itself from the elevated slab and looked down at the boy and the Messenger with its deep purple slitted eyes.

"So the hatchling has finally awoken. Now we can start your test." The Boss said in a deep booming voice.

"Actually boss there's a problem." Messenger said, "The kid said that he sign our contract by mistake."

"What?" The Boss roared before it turned its full attention towards the boy. "How could you have not known about our contract? Countless others have dedicated their lives in searching for our power."

"Like I said to Messenger, I was in a cave before I fell down a hole and ending up in some place with these destroyed buildings and a temple-"

"Destroyed, what do you mean destroyed?"

"Well the buildings were falling apart and a bunch of old rotting skeletons. If you're mad about me getting my blood on you scroll, I'm sorry alright. I tried to clean it but it was spreading-"

"I knew it had been a long time but destroyed, that is disheartening…" The Boss mumbled before looking off in space with its eyes filled with sorrow.

"Umm Mr. Dragon are you alright?"

"Yes, yes I'll be alright." The Boss said, "I'll need to inform the others later. Right now let's just handle the business with our contract.

"Yeah Messenger told me about the contract. Can't you just undo whatever happened?"

"It is not as that simple hatchling. Once a chakra user, even someone as young as you, signs our contract they are bound to us until I deemed them worthy or not. Even if it was by accident I must abide by this rule."

"What's chakra?"

There was a moment of silence between the three beings.

"…Well that's just perfect." The Messenger said

"I'll give you the short version hatchling." The Boss said, "Chakra is the energy created from your mental, physical, and spiritual essences joining together in a perfected union. Every being; human or spirit, good or evil, possesses chakra. But only those who train diligently can manifest said energy into a power that can bend the elements to their will. You have this power hatchling, which is why you were brought to our realm."

The boy soaked in the information the Boss told him. He looked down and stared at his hands. He had this power of Chakra? After years of helpless ridicule and abuse by so many people, know that he had the strength to fight back filled the boy with a furious burning anger. The boy clench his hands into fists as he started to physically shake and grind his teeth. This didn't go unnoticed by the two dragons however.

"Calm yourself hatchling." The Boss said, "Being angry will not help you-"

"Shut up!" The boy shouted while looking up at the dragon, "Why can't I be angry? All these years of being kicked around and believing I couldn't stop them. I should go back and kick everyone's ass-"

"Enough!"

The Boss silenced the boy by shouting, almost roaring, that vibrated inside the room. The blonde child couldn't help but stop ranting as his anger faded away to freight.

"I didn't say you couldn't be angry, you have every right to be angry. What I was saying is how is being angry going to help you? You can't change what happened in the past, and dwelling on it will blind you to the present and future. Accepting what has happened and learning to move on can help you grow more than daydreaming what could've been."

"But, but I just feel so _angry_."

"I know hatchling, I can sense it negative emotion radiating off of you. And I never said it would be easy or quick."

The boy unclenched his hands and looked down at the ground. After a moment of silence, the boy sighed and looked back up at the Boss.

"Can you help me then?"

"That depends on whether or not you are worthy." The boss said, "Come closer and let me examine you."

The boy nodded and walked towards the Boss, stopping near the base of the elevated slab of rock. The Boss lowered his head to the boy till the two were only a few feet from one another. Large purple eyes stared into deep pools of cerulean. Suddenly the Boss' eyes begun to glow with purple chakra. The boy didn't back away however, he stood his ground as the Boss continued with what he was doing. Minutes past before the Boss' eyes seized glowing and had a perplexed look on his face.

"How interesting…"

Naruto looked at the Boss confused, "Excuse me but what was that all about?"

The Boss lifted his head back onto his stone bed.

"I am…unsure whether or not you are worthy or not."

"How can you be unsure?"

"This isn't a simple matter hatchling." The Boss said, "We must be careful when choosing a new summoner. The power our clan wields can shake the very heavens if they willed it. If that power fell into the wrong hands, the chaos created could potentially destroy the mortal realm and ours. We only pick those with righteous hearts and strong minds to access my clan's abilities."

"Does that mean I'm not worthy?"

The Boss sighed, "I have no idea. I can see you have the foundation for being righteous and a potential I have not seen in a long time. But I also saw darkness lurking within you waiting to be unleashed upon the world. I don't know if I should accept you or destroy you."

"If I may Boss." The Messenger spoke up and catching the attention of the other two. "But I believe we should let this hatchling be our new summoner."

"And why should we Messenger?"

"You said this boy had the foundations of a righteous person. Then let us nurture the boy and make sure he doesn't feed that darkness in him."

The boy watched the conversation between the two dragons with no idea how to feel. There was something inside him that wanted to destroy the world? The boy never felt like he wanted destroy someone or something before. Sure there were times he wanted to hurt someone because they were mean to him, but the thought of actually destroying someone never crossed his mind before. And if he had that in him, does that mean he wouldn't be going home?

"I cannot deny that you have a fair point Messenger." The Boss turned his gaze to the boy. "You will be granted the title of summoner of the Dragon clan. But I do have conditions for you, if you chose to accept them."

"What are they?"

"The first condition is that you must stay here and train under us. We need to make sure that darkness in you does not manifest itself. Second, you must follow all of our teachings and training methods. And third, if you manage to complete our training and you aren't consumed by the evil; then when you turn fourteen years of age you will return to the mortal realm. Do you agree to these conditions hatchling?"

"I don't think I have must do I? Ether stay here and train with you or go back and being other people's punching bag again."

"Don't let this dishearten you hatchling. We may not be your parents, but we will look after you."

"I never knew my parents Mr. Boss."

"Tragic, but my clan will look after you hatchling like you were one of our own." The Boss looked over at the Messenger. "Go inform the mother and the others of our new summoner. The hatchling and I still have one more matter that needs to be concluded."

"Sure thing Boss."

The Messenger was coated in the same yellow light like before. The boy brought his hands up to shield his eyes, yet the light disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. Seeing the Messenger had vanished from the room the boy returned his focus back to the Boss.

"Umm excuse me Mr. Boss, but what else do we need to do?"

"It's nothing serious hatchling." The Boss said, "It's just you didn't sign your name when your blood spilled onto the scroll. We need to fix that mistake as soon as possible."

"My name?"

"Yes, your name."

"My name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."

* * *

 **Here's the first of my rewritten and reedited chapters, this one was a mess. I virtually had to nearly scrap the old chapter and rewrite a whole new one. Thankfully this was but a simple, if brief, origin story. Now the next few chapters, now those are going to be a little difficult.**

 **Also from this point forward, the author's notes on chapter 5 no longer apply. To those of you who already read that chapter, sorry for causing some confusion. To those of you new to this story, you don't need to worry.**

 **These are the new details about the world of my story that I most likely won't be able to address in my story. And some of these points might confuse some of you new readers, but if you continue reading you'll understand why. Or don't continue reading, There are others stories that you might enjoy more than mine.**

 **1\. Naruto isn't and will not be OP for a long time. I have an explanation for this, but that will be in the story. I just had to address that from the amount of people who keep mentioning it.**

 **2\. The Elemental Nations and the Imperium are not relatively close to each other. If you want a real world comparison, think the distant from The Balkans in Europe to Southeast Asia.**

 **3\. The technology progress in my story is similar to the tech between 1880 and 1900 with some exceptions.**

 **4\. There are going to be guns in this story. Don't worry only civilians, sailors, and some samurai will be using such weapons. The guns aren't really that advance ether; the guns are basically mid-19 century rifled muskets and cannons.**

 **That's basically it, I'll see you all in the next update.**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Old Home, New Problems

"Talking"

 _Flashback_

 **"Thinking"**

 _ **Attack/Jutsu**_

Disclaimer: Do any of you really read this?

* * *

(Konoha, Land of Fire)

It was a bright sunny day in Konoha. The village hidden in the leaves was bustling with activity from the villagers. The storekeepers and merchants were selling their wares, children running in the streets playing, even shinobi with their dark green flak jackets and leaf forehead protectors could be seen walking through the streets. Everything was relatively peaceful today throughout the entire village, but looks can be deceiving.

In an alleyway, far away from the crowded streets, nine figures were standing off against each other. Three of the figures, two boys and one girl, were standing to the side with expression of fear on their faces. The girl had her orange hair tied into two thick braids while wearing a brown vest over a pick shirt and knee-length beige shorts. One of the boys had short chestnut brown hair and wore a dark blue jacket and blue pants with a pair of round glasses over his eyes. The other boy also had brown hair, except it was spiky, but wore a pale green jacket, brown pants, and a dark blue scarf. Moegi, Udon, and Konohamaru watched the six genin stare down each other with suspicion.

To their left were the three genin, two teenage boys and one teenage girl, who threaten to beat them for simply bumping into them. The girl with the sandy blonde hair put into four small pigtails and wore a black kimono with a red sash and a giant fan strapped to her back switched her judgmental gaze between them and the other group every few moments. To the girls left was a boy wearing a baggy black bodysuit, a black hood with cat like ears pointing out from underneath, had some sort of mummified object strapped to his back, and war paint drawn on his face. The teenager had a sneer on his face, but that was comforting compared to the other boy standing in front of the other two. The crimson haired boy wore a deep red coat, black pants, and a large earthen gourd tied to his back with the kanji for 'love' written on his forehead. The teenager's cold emotionless expression was directed at the other group of three.

To the three youngsters right was the other group genin, but this time it was one teenage boy and two teenage girls. The boy had extremely pale skin, near white, with short black hair and wearing a black pants and a jacket that showed off his tone midriff. The girl to the boy's right had short pink hair and wore sleeveless red qipao with black spandex shorts underneath a light pink skirt and black gloves. The final girl stood in front of the other two had black hair with a blue tint up in a short ponytail and wore a dark blue shirt with a red and white fan symbol on her back and white shorts.

Sasuko Uchiha glared at the three genin with her arms crossed.

"You know threatening the citizens of Konoha with violence is enough for us to arrest you." Sasuko said, "It also doesn't help you that one of them is the grandson of the Hokage."

"Maybe if he watched where he was going then I wouldn't have had too." Said Kankuro, the male with the war paint drawn on his face.

"Are you alright young lord Konohamaru and friends?" Sai, the pale teenager, said, "Did mister tiny-dick cause you any harm?"

"No Mister Sai." The spikey brown haired tween, Konohamaru, said, "We were just leaving from the academy when we ran into them."

Kankuro shouted, "Ohh I'll show you little dick when I rip yours off-"

Temari, the blonde pigtail teen, grabbed her older brother's shirt before he could rush forward.

"I would appreciate it if we didn't embarrassed and cause a diplomatic incident for our village."

Sakura Haruno stepped forward. "I'm curious why Sunagakure shinobi are currently in Konoha."

"Agreed." Sasuko said

No mission or target is too dangerous or immoral, that was the philosophy of the shinobi and kunoichi of Sunagakure. To the west of the Land of Fire, and the Elemental Nations themselves, laid the Land of Wind. The entire country was a gigantic desert with the majority of the population living near the coastline, on the borders connecting with other nations, and the settlements near oases further into the desert. Sunagakure, or otherwise known as 'the village hidden in the sand,' was one of these settlements. Falling just behind trade and mining, the missions performed by Sunagakure attributed to ten percent to the total economic strength of the Land of Wind. But still, that didn't explain why these three were in Konoha.

"Wow you three really don't know? Damn, Konoha shinobi and kunoichi must be more stupid then I thought" Kankuro smiled smugly, "We are here to take part in the Chunin Exams. You know, the exams where genin are tested to see if their ready to be promoted to the next rank."

"We know what the exams are Suna. But this information is new to us." Sasuko smirked, "Though if our competition feels like they need to show that their better than people in the academy, I think we're perfectly fine."

Kankuro kept his smug expression.

"Ohh I'll gladly show you how superior we are-"

"Shut-up Kankuro."

The red headed teen, Gaara, turned his head towards his brother. Kankuro smugness immediately faltered and was replaced with submissiveness, stepping back with his head lowered.

"Y-yes Gaara."

Gaara turned his attention away from Kankuro and back to the three Konoha genin. His pale green eyes and face expressionless.

"What are your names?"

Sasuko stepped forward.

"I'm Sasuko Uchiha, the pink haired girl is Sakura Haruno, and the boy is Sai. We are genin Team Seven of Konoha with our Jounin leader being Kakashi Hatake. Now who are you three?"

"We are the Sand Siblings of Sunagakure; Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari." Gaara said, "Mother is going to enjoy tasting your blood Sasuko Uchiha."

"Gaara," Temari spoke up, "we need to get back to our hotel room. Sensei st-still needs to tell us something."

"Fine Temari." Gaara turned around to his sister before looking back at Team Seven. "Till we will meet again Sasuko Uchiha."

And with that the Sunagakure genin walked away and disappeared into the multiple turns and corners. The tense atmosphere of the alleyway quickly vanished as everyone let out a sigh of relief. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon approached team seven with smiles on their faces.

"Thanks for helping us out there." Moegi smiled up at the genin. "We really owe you ones don't we?"

Sakura smiled back down at them.

"No problem, just be more careful alright. We don't need you running into freaks like them again."

"Sure thing miss!" Konohamaru said, "Anyways we better get going, a lot of studying to do you know."

Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon all said their goodbyes to Team Seven and ran off in the opposite direction of the Suna genin.

"Those Suna shinobi were just a lovely bunch weren't they?" Sakura said

"Really? They seem more creepy then lovely." Sai asked with a small smile on his face.

Sakura closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Sarcasm Sai, I thought you would've picked it up by now."

"That's enough you two." Sasuko turning her attention at her a teammates, "Do ether of you know about the chunin exams?"

Sakura shook her head while Sai replied with a shrug.

"Sorry Uchiha-san, but we haven't heard anything." Sai responded, "Maybe it's the reason why Hatake-sensei called a team meeting today?"

"Perhaps, we should continue to the training grounds however." Sasuko walked passed her two teammates. "We'll be late if we don't hurry up."

"I don't know why we still bother to show up on time." Sakura interjected, "We all know Kakashi-sensei always shows up late."

"But if we didn't show up at Hatake-senseis' determined time then that will make us poor students. And we wouldn't want that Sakura." Sai said with a small smile on his face as he followed right behind Sasuko.

"…I swear Sai most of the stuff you say is just to screw with me."

Sakura said before following right behind her teammates as they all proceed to the training grounds.

* * *

(Team Seven Training Ground, Konoha)

Sakura's would have gloated if she wasn't so annoyed. The group had been waiting at their team meeting spot, a small clearing with a nearby forest and river, for two hours for their sensei to arrive. Sakura was standing with her arms crossed and slowly pacing back and forth. Sai was sitting against one of the three training posts painting pictures of animals on a blank scroll. Sasuko lying against one of the trees with her eyes closed and arms acting as a makeshift pillow.

This was a pretty common sight and routine for Team Seven while they waited for Kakashi Hatake to show up. A short amount of the time they would train ether their taijutsu, or martial skills, and ninjutsu, chakra-based attacks, till their sensei showed up. But usually after an hour or so the three genin would stop training and go into their own devices. Sakura would sometimes try and converse with her teammates, but it was like speaking to a brick wall and a parrot.

Sakura, and many other kunoichi-in-training, looked up to the Uchiha while in the academy. A girl being at the top of their class and outshining all the boys gave all her female peers drive to do better. And when Sakura found out she would be on the same team as Sasuko, a surge of excitement filled her. But that excitement was quickly replaced with shocked at how distant the Uchiha was. Sakura could barely get a few sentences out of Sasuko, and the ones she could were always cold and blunt. But at least Sasuko set where Sakura stood with her. Sai was another story all together.

Sakura couldn't put her finger on the pale teenager. Sai had showed up during her finally year of the academy seemingly out of nowhere. No one knew where he came from and frankly Sakura had very little interest in Sai to begin with. To which Sakura was now grateful from having to deal with Sai's social ineptitude. There was just somethings you just don't casually say to someone. Thankfully their sensei has begun teaching and showing him how to act around other people.

The sound of footsteps caught Team Sevens as each one stopped what they were doing to see who it was.

A man with spikey sliver hair stepped out of the forest slouching and with his pockets. He wore a dark green flak jacket over a dark blue long-sleeve shirt, dark blue pants, open toed sandals, and dark blue fingerless gloves. Yet it was the dark blue cloth face mask and leaf forehead protector covering his whole face with the exception of his right eye. The man was Kakashi Hatake, 'the White Fang' and the jounin leader of Team Seven.

"You're late Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura barked.

Kakashi took one of his hands out of his pocket and begun scratching the back of his head.

"Sorry, I just got lost on the road of life."

Sakura sighed, "You can at least be a little more creative or believable in your excuses Kakashi-sensei."

"I'll consider it Sakura. Now on to the reason I called you all here."

"It's because of the chunin exams, isn't in?" Sasuko interjected

"What makes you think that Sasuko?" Kakashi replied

"We meet a team of Sunagakure genin harassing some civilian's earlier that told us."

"Harassing civilians? Hmmm the Hokage won't like that." Kakashi said, "But anyways, I've came to tell all of you that Team Seven will be participating in the chunin exams this year."

"Bu-but we've only been an active shinobi for five months. Why are we participating?" Sakura asked

"Sakura is telling the truth Kakashi-sensei." Sai said, "Most genin teams usually have to wait a period of two years or complete a certain number of C-rank mission to qualify for the exams."

Kakashi silenced Sakura and Sai by raising his hand and holding up a single finger.

"First off, you three won't be the only rookie genin team there. Kurenai's and Asuma's team will be participating in the exams as well. Secondly, the higher ups decided that all of you are ready from how successful our last mission went."

The genin of Team Seven went silent as their thoughts went to their last mission. It was a basic C-rank escort mission to a Land of Waves, a small nation between The Land of Fire and the Land of Water that turned into a near A-rank mission and a fight for their lives. A crime lord and his small mercenary army, a rouge shinobi and his disciples, along with the local residents rising up in revolt left a colorful story on the mission report. How any of them managed to survive that ordeal was beyond them. At least Konoha benefited from it since now the people of the Land of Waves owed a debt to the Land of Fire. A debt that the Fire Daimyo, Hokage, or the councils will come to collect one day.

Kakashi continued, "Though if any of you don't feel comfortable about this I can go back and say that my team doesn't want to participate."

Sakura decided to speak up.

"Kakashi-sensei I don't think were ready for this. Everyone else is just more experience then us-"

"We're going to do this."

Sasuko interjected and left Sakura staring at her in shock.

"But Sasuko-"

"If the Hokage and the shinobi council think we're ready, then we're ready." Sasuko continued, "When and where do we need to go Kakashi?"

"A little eager aren't we Sasuko?" An outline of a smile formed underneath Kakashi's mask. "Go to the academy room #301 two days from now at precisely 1:00 pm. If you show up even a second later, you'll all be disqualified from the exams. I'm also giving you three the next two days to relax and get ready. So be sure to go to sleep early and eat a good breakfast, believe me you're going to need it. That's all I have to say, do me proud."

And with his finally piece said Kakashi walked away from Team Seven and back into the forest. Moments passed as Sai, Sakura, and Sasuko let the weight of their situation sink in. They would be participating in the exams that only the strongest and experience of genin go to and who advance to the rank of chunin. Yet it was Sakura who voiced her opinion out load.

"Do you really think we're ready for this Sasuko?"

Sasuko turned to Sakura.

"I honestly don't know Haruno. But we're going to give our best and show them Team Seven outshines anyone there."

Sai smiled, "I think the better answer is 'we are going to kick there asses' Uchiha-san."

Sasuko smirked with her eyes closed as she walked in the direction leading to Konoha.

"Eloquently put Sai."

"Too bad they won't have as big of asses as your Sakura. It would be much easier to targets to hit."

"Dammit Sai!"

* * *

(Two days later, Konoha Genin Academy)

The Genin Academy of Konoha, the institution where many legendary shinobi and kunoichi of Konoha trained. Established shortly after the Second Great Shinobi War to switch shinobi training from private clan-based teachings to open enrollment training to anyone who possessed the aptitude. The memories of classrooms, exams, and much simpler lives filled all the Konoha genin walking past the doors with nostalgia. All except Team Seven however.

At the moment rage, contentment, and anxiety was all that Team Seven felt. A scowling Sasuko walked in front of their small group as she carried a black eye on her face. Sai brought up the rear with his small smile plastered onto his face as he paid little attention to everyone around him. Sakura stood between them with head more lowered then her teammates trying to keep her nerves under control.

When Team Seven arrived at the academy they were greeted by the sight of genin from all over the Elemental Nations making their way towards the examination room. Sasuko, Sakura, and Sai also made their way to the room #301 where a crowd of genin filled the hallway outside the room. It seemed that relatively normal until another Konoha genin team consisting of a male with long black hair a white robe and brown pants, a female wearing a high-collar white blouse with maroon pants, and another male with a black bowl cut wearing a green spandex and orange leg warmers.

The male with the long hair introduced himself as Neji Hyuga along with his other two teammates, the girl Tenten and the other male Rock Lee. After brief conversation that boiled down to Neji smugly saying Team Seven couldn't compare to a more experience genin team like his. Sasuko countered him by saying that there was a genjutsu casted over the hallway that changed the numbers of the room. And once Sasuko said it the numbers above the doors warped from the 300's to the 200's. With the illusion now shattered all the genin made their way out of the hallway and to the 'real' examination room. Sasuko swelled with pride on how she was able to detect the genjutsu while no one else even noticed. But that pride quickly disappeared when Sai pointed out that the Chunin Exams would now be even harder with the extra competition.

Sasuko merely replied with a glare.

After leaving the false examination room behind, Team Seven went on their way before they were stopped by Rock Lee. The green clad genin challenged Sasuko to a spar, and proclaiming his loved to an embarrassed Sakura, to see who was stronger between them. Sasuko, wanting to take her frustration out from her earlier mistake, accepted the challenge without hesitation.

It was an overly east fight with Rock Lee coming out on top. Sasuko wasn't prepared for Rock Lee's speed that had him dancing circles around her. Fortunately for the female Uchiha, Rock Lee only managed to give her a black eye before his sensei arrived and stopped the fight. A near identical clone of Rock Lee, same outfit, bowl cut, leg warmers, thick bushy eye brows, with the only difference being a green jounin flak jacket and was considerably older. The man, identifying himself as Might Guy, reprehended them all about wasting time on such an important event and sent Team Seven on their way while Rock Lee stayed behind.

And now they were here, standing outside of examination room #301. Sasuko, Sakura, and Sai all looked at each other briefly before nodding their heads at one another. Sasuko stepped forward and opened the door.

The amount of genin inside the gigantic classroom left Team Seven a little stunned. Genin of various villages filled the room with people ether sitting on table or chairs, leaning against the blue colored walls, or standing. The tension in the air was only amplified by the silence and glares from a few genin near door directed at Team Seven. Intimidating to the uninitiated, but vastly inferior to what the trio experience during their time in the Land of Waves.

"Well, well the ice princess finally arrives. Still have the bitchy attitude Sasuko?" A gruff voice called out.

Walking out of the crowd and towards Team Seven was another genin team from Konoha consisting of two male teens, one female, and a small white puppy. Standing in front of the trio was a male teenager with short chestnut spiky hair, with the puppy rest on top of the guy's head, wearing a black leather jacket and pants with two large red fang tattoos on his cheeks. To his right was the other teenage male wearing a light grey jacket with its hood up, dark grey pants, a black mask similar to their Kakashi, and sunglasses. And to his left was the teenage girl with long dark blue hair and pale skin wearing a white/violet colored jacket with dark blue pants with faded violet pupil-less eyes.

The teen with the dog on his head had a large smile plastered on his face as he watched Sasuko.

"Nice shiner there princess. What happened, whacked yourself while training?"

Sasuko smirked at the teen.

"I thought I smelled wet dog around here Kiba."

"Hi Hinata, hi Shino." Sakura stepped forward, "I love what you done with your hair Hinata. You always did look prettier with it longer."

"T-thank you Sa-sakura. You look g-good too."

The girl stuttered as the coat wearing teen nodded his head.

"Sai-kun where have you been!?"

A high pitched voice called out before female teenager with a platinum blonde ponytail that reached down to the middle of her back while wearing a purple collared tube-top and purple/black skirt jumped on Sai's back and hugging his neck. Sai however showed little reaction beyond a questioning look.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to see you again." The blonde said

"Stop molesting Sai Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled out

"Ohh don't be jealous that Sai likes me better then you forehead."

Ino stuck her tongue out at Sakura.

"Ino stop antagonizing her." A bored voice said, "It's bad enough that we have to face them in the exams. Don't give them a reason to cause problems for us."

Sakura looked past Ino and saw two teenage boys walking up to their group. The boy on the right was taller and bulker with long spiky brown hair wearing a red kimono underneath a steel chest-plate, black pants, and a red bandana. The boy on the left was by contrast shorter and slimmer with his hair up in a ponytail that made his head look like a pineapple as he wore a baggy grey long-sleeve shirt and pants.

"Hey Shikamaru, hey Choji." Sakura waved her hand towards them.

"Hey" the two teen boys replied in unison.

"Looks like the first year rookies are all here." Kiba's flashed a toothy grin at Sasuko, "At least those good enough to make the cut, right Sasuko?"

"Yeah, too bad they let people who smell like dog piss in."

"Say what you want princess, but we've been training our asses off. We're going to win this."

"Hey you guys might want to keep it down." Another voice spoke up drawing all of their attention. They turned to look see man with glasses, silver hair in a short ponytail, a purple vest with a grey t-shirt underneath, and purple pants walking towards them. "It's not exactly a good idea to draw attention to yourself, especially since you all are fresh out of the academy."

"And you are?" Ino asked

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi and look around you, your group has made quite the impression." All nine rookies looked around at the rest people in the room to see that every genin was now glaring at them with distant in their eyes. "The Chunin Exams makes everyone here tenser than usual. And boasting can really set them off. Though I can't blame ya, you are rookies after all. None of you would know about this."

"This isn't your first time taking the exam Kabuto?" Sakura asked

"No it's actually my seventh time. They're only held once a year, makes waiting much more nerve wrecking."

"Wow, so you must be a veteran at this."

"Kind of, every village has their own version of the exams. Some are easier than others."

"So the rumors about the exams are true. This is going to be a pain-in-the-ass." Shikamaru said

"Don't worry I think I have something that will help you." Kabuto reached down into his pouch to pull out a stack of orange card with a white circle in the middle. "These are shinobi info cards."

"How are those supposed to help?"

"They tell you everything about any individual shinobi or teams rank and skill. You need readings on someone or a few people, I'm your guy. And since their blank until I put my chakra in them, I'm the only one to give you this information."

"How much will this cost?" Sasuko asked

"You're more perceptive then I thought Miss Uchiha. Since all of you are rookies here, it's on the house. So anyone you want to know about?"

"Rock Lee and Gaara of Sunagakure" Sasuko asked again

"You already know their names? That just makes it way less fun."

Kabuto reached down to his deck and sorted through it before pulling out two random cards. Closing his eyes he channeled his chakra into each card. In only a matter of seconds the information, pictures, and numbers appeared on the side of the cards that used to be blank. Kabuto opened his eyes and handed them to Sasuko.

"So we rookies are the talk of the exams huh?" Kiba boasted

Kabuto shook his head, "Other than Sasuko and her team, none of you are really worth mentioning." He then raised his hand and pointed at the windows. "Everyone is more concerned about those three gentlemen." All nine rookies looked over at the windows to see who Kabuto was pointing at.

Standing near one of the windows were three men like Kabuto said with two against the wall, one looking at them while the other stared out the window, while the third one sat down reading a small brown book. The man looking at them had dark tannish skin with black hair in numerous dreadlocks with what looked like a gas mask covering the lower half of his face. He wore a sleeveless brown trench over a dirty dark grey shirt and pouch bandolier across his chest with black cargo pants tucked into black combat boots. The male sitting on the ground reading was covered in bandages with a beige collared shirt underneath a worn black flak jacket, with a small sun symbol stitched over his heart, blue jeans, and light brown boots. The man looking out the window had short blonde hair tied with a crimson cloth headband and along with a pair of brown goggles covering his eyes and red facemask covering his face. He wore a grey shirt underneath a red leather cuirass that had the same sun symbol over the heart with beige pants tucked into his black boots and red leather arm guards.

"I'll bite, why are those clowns so interesting?" Kiba asked

"Well those 'clowns' are from the lands to the far west. And before any of you ask, no I don't know why there here." Kabuto answered leaving all nine rookies dumbfounded why they were in the chunin exams.

The lands to the west, where the most enigmatic people known in all of the Elemental Nations reside. Located beyond the great desert of the Land of Winds and the mountain ranges of the Land of Rock, the west was considered an exotic yet mysterious. Few people from the Elemental Nations could claim to have traveled there and vice versa. Sometimes you could find some traders from the west in some port cities all over the Elemental Nations, though they are rare. The most famous encounter was during the Third Great Shinobi War when a group of shinobi from the Land of Earth went to assassinate a prominent merchant that supported Konoha who had hired a western mercenary group to protect him. It ended with the earth shinobi dead and many of the Elemental Nations finding out that the people from the west could perform jutsu.

"I can see why." Muttered Sakura

"Yeah, I heard a rumor that a war there just recently ended over there. I'd watched them carefully, no idea what kind of stuff their capable of." Kabuto leaned in and whispered before clearing his throat. "But I suggest you all also pay attention to the other genin as well. Like those shinobi from that new village located in the Land of Rice. Though I'd doubt newbies like them won't stand a chance-"

Kabuto was interrupted when out of nowhere a metal gauntlet appeared right in front of his face. The metal clad fist would have connect if it wasn't for another hand blocking the punch. Kabuto and the other rookie genin instinctually jumped back to see what happened before their eyes.

Two men stood in front of the rookies and Kabuto as everyone else in the room looked on in awe. The one with the metal gauntlet wore a light grey coat with a large patch of white fur running down the back, a grey scarf, bandages covering his face and chest, while also wearing a shinobi forehead protector with a sound note etched into the metal strip. The man's arm was being held by the western shinobi that, only moments ago, had been looking out the window. But not only did the westerner held the man's arm with his left hand, his right hand dung into the man's shoulder.

"You know," The Blonde westerner said, "If you wanted a fight all you had to do was ask. I would've happily obliged you. No reason to be pick random fights."

"And let my villages honor be insult? I think not." The man looked up at the blonde. "Though it is nice to know how fast you are westerner."

"Let go of Dosu, _now_."

A teenage girl with long black hair wearing grey pants and a beige flak jacket said as she ran out of the crowd. A teen male with spikey black hair wearing beige shirt with red kanji on the front and grey pants followed closely with a frustrated expression on his face. The blonde westerner turned his head towards the duo.

"Is that a challenge ma'am?" The blonde asked

"More like a promise we'll kick your ass." The black haired boy threaten

"If this guy is what your village has to offer, I think I'm pretty safe."

But before the situation could escalate further, a giant cloud of smoke erupted on the other side of the room and drawing everyone's attention. The smoke dissipated and was replaced with twenty-one Konoha shinobi. Twenty of the shinobi wore matching grey jumpsuits and carrying clipboards in their arms. Yet standing in the middle of the small group stood a scarred older man wearing a black leather trench coat over a black jumpsuit similar to the shinobi and a black bandana wrapped around his head. The man stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Listen up you little shits, because I'm only going to say this once! For the next few hours your pathetic little lives belong to me, Ibiki Morino. To you shinobi visiting from other villages, I'm every fucking nightmare your elders told you about the shinobi of Konoha. To those of Konoha, I am no longer your comrade or superior. I am enemy number fucking one. Welcome to the Chunin Exams maggots, get ready to be broken."

* * *

 **Over a thousand words added and fixed and I still forgot to mention that mostly everyone will be their Shippuden age's last chapter. And I somehow deleted the original document that had the chapter. Only me guys, only me.**

 **And yes, I turn Sasuko into a female in my story. I mostly did it for character motivations and literary purposes. We've all seen the brooding prodigy male teen that prefers to be alone then with people, I thought I could change it up a little bit. I can't say anymore unfortunately, I would be giving spoilers for character development away. Also sorry for the stupid sounding name, there's no general consensus for a name so I picked one at random. You'd also be surprised at how little stories feature a on this website, though there are enough pictures on the internet for you to get a visual example to what she looks like.**

 **Now that's out of the way, you may now send your hate. I take both PM and reviews.**

 **I'll see you all in the next chapter folks.**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Survival of the Fittest (Unedited)

"Talking"

 _Flashback_

 **"** **Thinking"**

 ** _"_** ** _Jutsu"_**

Disclaimer: You know what goes here.

* * *

(Forest of Death)

If there was one word that could describe the forest in front of them, it would be foreboding. Sakura could only look at the forest on the other side of a tall chain link fence with barbed wire tied around the top. The trees were tall enough that see could hardly see the tops from where she stood and trunks so thick that a small group of people would be needed circle it. The inside of the forest didn't reassure Sakura ether. Despite is being the middle of the day with no clouds in the sky she could only see beyond one or three trees before utter darkness blocked the view of anything else. Sakura wondered what her teammates thought of the place, if only they were somewhere private to ask them.

Standing with them in an open field outside of Konoha was shinobi remaining from the first phase of the exam from the yesterday. Ibiki Morino, their previous instructor, had welcomed them to the chunin exams with a literal ten-answer paper test only with clear cut rules. Get caught cheating at least three times and you're not only disqualified from this chunin exam, but forbidden from ever taking the chunin exams again. It also didn't help that each question was more difficult than the last till they were near impossible. Fortunately for Sakura, she managed to finish the questions with only relative difficulty and her teammates not getting them disqualified, they managed to progress to the next stage of the exam. Along with the other Konoha rookies and half of shinobi from the first phase. Though their new instructor was the complete opposite of the previous one.

Standing in front of the entire group was a woman with a line of the same shinobi that assisted Ibiki yesterday standing right behind her. The woman had fair skin with brown eyes and purple short purple hair tied up feral bun. Her voluptuous body was cover in a fishnet shirt and thigh-length shorts with an open beige trench coat and dark orange mini skirt covering the fishnet. Other than a wooden charm attached to a cord around her neck, she wore nothing else. The woman eyed the crowd with a glint in her eyes and a wide grin showing her white teeth.

"Welcome to the second phase of the chunin exam's everyone. I, the utterly sexy and hilarious Anko Mitarashi, will be your instructor for the rest of this section of the exam." The woman pointed at the forest behind her without looking away from the group. "Behind me is training ground 44, or as we know it around here, _the Forest of Death_. Filled with killer flora, fauna, insects, and sometimes a mixture of a few. And the place where all of you will be living in the next few days."

"What do you mean where going to spend the next few days in there?" A random voice shouted from the crowd.

"If you would let me finish I would tell you." Anko replied, "This phase of the exam is to test your survival skills required by all shinobi. So why not test those skills in a place where everything is trying to kill you." The woman finished with a big smile.

"But how will we-AWWW!" Another random shinobi shouted before Anko threw a kunai into the crowd only barely missing them.

"The next person who interrupts me is getting one of these babies aimed at their crotch next. Is that understood everyone?"

"Yes ma'am!" a few shinobi shouted out

"Good, this part of the exam is not only meant to test your survival skills but it's also a race. In the center of the forest is a tower where the third part of the exams will take place. But there's a catch." Anko pulled out two scrolls out of her trench coat pockets. In her right hand a black scroll with the kanji for 'earth' and in her right hand a white scroll with the kanji for 'heaven.' "These scrolls are the key. In order to be allowed in the tower you must have both scrolls in your possession and must get there within four days. And since everyone will only be given one of these scrolls, all of you are going to have to fight for it. And for you more violent bloodthirsty shinobi killing is allowed for this section of the exam." Anko tossed the scrolls to two of her assistants who successfully caught them. "My fine associates here will give each team a gate number that will be your starting point in the exam and your assigned scroll waiting for you there. Have a lovely day kiddies and try not to die. It only makes clean up more difficult." The whole crowd of shinobi begun to line up in front of the assistants waiting to pick up their gate number. Once they got there number each team rushed off towards their gate and scrolls.

Team seven was standing in front of a gate with the number 47 on a red sign overhead. Sasuko held a white scroll in her hands while Sakura and Sai stood waiting for the gate to open. "So what's our plan guys? This is probably the best chance right now to come up with one." Sasuko crossed her arms as Sakura and Sai looked at her.

"You should be the one to hold onto it Sasuko. You're the strongest here and have the best chance of survival." Sakura said

"Give me the scroll. My ink creatures and I are the fastest here. If we get attacked, and one of you gets injured, I can get us away fast."

"Good point Sai, you hold onto the scroll." Sasuko tossed the scroll to Sai. He caught and put it in the pouch on his hip.

"Since that is taken care of, what about getting the earth scroll we need."

"Well Sasuko we got two options. One, we can ambush a team as soon as the gates open while near the edge of the forest and find the scroll on them. Or two, we can wait near the tower and hopefully ambush a tired team." Sakura closed her eyes for a few seconds as she let out a sigh. "To be honest both options sound incredibly risky Sasuko. We don't know what team has what scroll."

"We don't really have a choice Sakura. You heard what the instructor said." Sasuko pointed out what the purple haired woman said earlier. "Some people are going to try and kill us. We need to get that scroll by any means necessary."

"Yes but that really doesn't sound like a-" Before sakura could finish a loud high pitched horn blasted its sound getting the team sevens attention. The gate in the chain-link fence opened up the way into the forest. Sasuko uncrossed her arms as her muscles tensed up and got in a tradition shinobi running stance, with her legs bent and her arms at extended to her sides.

"No more time to talk, we got to go now!"

"Yes ma'am!" Sai and Sakura shouted as they both dropped in running stances as well. The three of them rushed through the gate and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

(North forest)

The situation and position team seven was in gave the phrase 'shit hitting the fan' a whole new meaning. Only a short time after they entered the forest they were ambushed by a group of Amegakure shinobi from the land of rain. After a short skirmish, with Sasuko using her fire jutsu and Sai using his ink attacks, team seven defeated the rain shinobi by knocking them unconscious. Unfortunately for them their opponents was carrying a heaven's scroll with them making fighting them useless. Not wanting them to be of anymore trouble, they took their weapons and scroll before running away as fast as they could.

After running a considerable distance away the team decided to rest in a small area with rotten logs lying down on the ground. They only managed to rest for a few moments before a strong gust of wind blew through the forest. Sai was blown away by the wind and disappeared into the forest. Only Sasuko and Sakura managed to stay in their place till the wind stopped. But before the duo could take a breath the collective sound of hissing erupted from the forest. Snakes slithered out of the shadows of the forests and towards them. Without a second thought the two teen girls ran in the opposite direction with the serpents taking pursuit.

Sasuko and Sakura were crouching on thick tree branches near the crown of the tree breathing heavily as they watched the snakes climb up the trees. They were slithering up the trees slowly but showed no sign of slowing down. Sasuko straighten herself up, "Sakura stand back, _now_." Sakura only nodded as she jumped back to a different tree branch behind Sasuko.

Sasuko brought her hands together and started to do a series of hand signs before it ended with her hands together with her fingers and thumbs intertwined but her index fingers pointing straight up. **_"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire"_** Sasuko's cheeks puffed up before she opened her mouth a series of fire balls rapidly shot out towards the snakes. The tree trunks were set a flame along with the snakes, their burnt corpses fell off the trunks in a rain of charred body parts. It took only a few minutes before the trees were free from the snakes, but were still left on fire.

Sakura looked on before she jumped next to Sasuko. "That was close."

"Yeah, come on we got to find Sai."

The duo was ready to leap through the branches till the sound of slow clapping echoed out. They looked around till they saw a shadowy figure in the distance standing on a tree branch. The figure stepped out to show a woman with pale skin and long shiny black hair. She wore a beige poncho with a long-sleeve black shirt underneath and black pants with a large purple rope tide at the waist. Her eyes were covered by the hat but a wide grin was plastered on her face.

"I must admit Sasuko, I am very impressed."

Sasuko and Sakura pulled out there kunai. "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

"My name is Shiore of Kusagakure. And I'm a huge of yours Miss Uchiha."

Sasuko didn't and couldn't let down her guard. Every shinobi, and regular civilians for the matter, from _The Village hidden in the Grass_ and the Land of Grass are extremely secretive, even for most shinobi. Being not only smaller than most other countries but also surrounded by stronger nation had lead to its people majoring in diplomacy and trading secrets for influence. Shinobi are also known to disguise themselves from the highest of nobles to poorest of beggars to infiltrate anywhere at any time. Kusagakure shinobi always had a trick up there sleeve, and judging that this one sent the snakes and wind, this one is no different.

"If you want our scroll you're going to have to pry it from my cold dead hands!"

"Ohh sweet, naïve, Sasuko. I already know that your pale teammate has your scroll. But that not what I'm after." Shiore lifted her arm and pointed at the Sasuko. "I want you Uchiha."

At the moment Shiore said that both Sasuko and Sakura threw their kunai at the grass shinobi. Shiore merely caught both of the knives with her hands. But before the Konoha shinobi could throw more weapons Shiore made a hand sign similar to the one Sasuko made but without the index fingers extended. **_"Illusion Release: Inner Torment"_**

As soon as the Kusagakure said this Sasuko and Sakura muscles tensed up, freezing them in place, a cold sensation ran up their spine. Sweat began to form on their brows as the pupils in their eyes became extremely dilated. In less than a split the clam quietness of the forest was broken. Sakura gave a hellish scream as she clutched her head and collapsed unto the tree trunk in a fetal position continuing to scream. Sasuko fared no better, although she didn't collapse her muscles violently convulsed with her eyes wide opened and teeth chattered. Shiore smiled as she started to proceed towards the Konoha shinobi.

 ** _"_** ** _Ink Release: Super Beast Scroll"_**

Six pure white colored lions with black outlines shot out of the forest and towards Shiore. The woman jumped back and dodge each lion as they attacked her. As they slammed into the trees the exploded into a blobs of a black substance. As Shiore was dealing with the lion-like creatures, Sai jumped down in front of Sasuko and Sakura. He was covered in red stains and a few scratches. Sai brought his hand up to his face with his index and middle finger extended. "Release!" Sasuko and Sakura immediately ceased their actions and looked at Sai.

"Wh-what happened to-to those m-men…" Sakura muttered as she got up from her position.

"It was a genjutsu and I just released you two from it." Sai opened his scroll and before using his brush to start painting. "Now if can help me, that'd be great."

"Sasuko stand back. If this person wants you it's best to stay away from her." Sakura fastened her gloves before she leaped forward towards Shiore. As she was rushing towards the grass shinobi she began forming a set of hand signs. **_"Earth Release: Great Earthen Fist"_**

Shiore finished off the last lion, getting stained in the black substance all over her, when she heard Sakura shout out. A large rumble shook the forest all around her, looking down, Shiore quickly jumped from the branch onto another. Only seconds later a large boulder, roughly in the shape of a fist, shot up from the ground and broke off the branch. **_"Earth Release: Shrapnel Stone Bomb"_** The boulder exploded, sending tiny sharp rocks flying straight towards Shiore. The woman dodged each stone by leaping further back to a higher branch. But as soon as he landed six more lion pounced on her. She did a series of hand signs, **_"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"_** A sudden torrent of wind shot out from her mouth blasting all the lions back to ink. Out of the corner of Shiore's eye was Sai sitting on a branch with his scroll and brush.

Seeing that his seconded ink lion attack failed he begun to paint another set of beasts before Shiore disappeared from view. He was about move from his spot till Shiore reappeared right in front of him. Before he had any time to react the woman delivered a _hard_ jab to his abdomen. All the air in his lungs had left his body at that one punch and lost all ability to breath. Grabbing him from the collar of his shirt Shiore tossed Sai towards the ground like he was a rag doll.

"Sai!" Sakura jumped from her tree branch and towards her failing teammate. She only managed to make it halfway before Shiore appeared behind her and gave a swift kick in the middle of her spine. It propelled her even faster than before slamming into a trunk before falling towards the ground. The woman landed on another branch with a grin on her face.

"Now since those teammates of yours are gone we can-"

 ** _"_** ** _Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire"_**

A torrent of fire balls were heading towards Shiore. She quickly dodge the fireballs before they ripped into the tree setting the wood on fire and a massive hole was cut through. As soon as she touched down on another branch Sasuko was right in her face with two kunai trying to slash her. The two engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Shiore managing to block or dodge every strike attempted by Sasuko. The grass shinobi jumped back from Sasuko completely composed and calm as Sasuko stood there breathing heavily with her arms still raised in her fighting stance.

"I have to admit Sasuko, charging me by yourself after I dispatched your teammates took some guts. Too bad I have to rip them out of you."

Sasuko smirked, "Who said _I_ charged you?" The Uchiha exploded in a puff of smoke leaving nothing behind. Shiore had a shocked expression on her face at what just happened right before her eyes.

 ** _"_** ** _Fire Release: Dragon Fire"_** Shiore looked all around her to see that large streams of flames coming towards her from every direction. Behind those flames were multiple clones of Sasuko spitting out the fire. Shiore couldn't help but let out a smirk. **"Clever girl…"** Once all the flames hit the grass shinobi at the same time a large explosion of fire blasted everything in the immediate area, charring all the surrounding trees and leafs. All of the clones seized their fire breathing when the explosion happened and dissipated. Leaving the true Sasuko to admire her handy work.

"Don't fuck with the Uchiha bit-ohh shit…" Sasuko saw that in the flames was a shadowy figure walking out of the flames.

Shiore stepped out of the flames with her clothes charred and black, but that wasn't the most disturbing. Her face was shredded, _literally shredded_. The skin across the jaw was completely burnt off reviling snow white skin and purple lips. The right side of her face was melted as the left side showed the same skin color but with a yellow colored eye with a silted pupil. She gave a wide yellow tinted at Sasuko.

"As much as I enjoyed your little show Sasuko-chan, I need to cut this short. I'm a very busy man." A slimly masculine voice came out replacing the feminine one. 'She' did a single hand sigh, **_"Illusion Release: Temporary Paralysis"_**

Sasuko felt her entire body became stiff. No matter much she tried to move something nothing would budge. Shiore extend 'her' neck and shot towards Sasuko with 'her' mouth opened showing elongated canines. **_"Sealing Release: Cursed Seal of Heaven"_** And in one move Shiore bit down on the base of Sasuko's neck. After a moment Shiore released her fangs from the Uchiha's with three black tomoe eyes drop appearing right where she bit.

Sasuko could feel her head starting to spin and blackness soon begun to creep from the corner of her eyes. Shiore's grinning face was right in front of hers. "This is a gift Sasuko. The true power you have been seeking all your life. So don't squander it. And when you're finally ready to harness that power come find me kukuku…" Sasuko's vision turned to black as she felt everything vanished right from under her. As if she was slipping into nothingness itself…

* * *

(Northwest forest)

In a brighter section of the forest a green blur was dashing across the tree tops. The blur was a lone teenage man with a black bowl cut and thick bushy eyebrows. But it was his flamboyant attire that stood out the most. He wore a sing bright green spandex jumpsuit with orange leg warmers and white tape covering his hands all the way up to his elbows.

Rock Lee was currently scouting the area for other teams. His own team had yet to encounter any other team so Neji sent him to locate any other teams. Lee looked up to see the sunlight breaking through the crowns of the trees as leaves were gently floating in the air. Narrowed his eyes and landed on a tree branch. **"If I can catch twenty of those leafs before they hit the ground, then Sakura will fall in love with me."** An image of Sakura with a lovingly expression on her face flashed in his mind. **"And if I cannot then she return my feelings. That is the challenged I give myself. I will show her I am worthy!"** Another image of Sakura flashed through his mind but this time she had an angry expression. Lee leaped from the tree branch towards the falling leafs. One right after the other, Lee grabbed the each leaf at an amazing speed with his hands. Landing on a lower branch Lee counted how many he had caught. **"Nineteen, I just need one more."** He looked down to see the last leaf floating down to the dirt below. Lee launched himself at the plant with only a few centimeters away from his hand…

A high squeaking noise came out of the forest that got Lee's attention. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a tiny squirrel failing around with fire coming out of its back. Lee landed on the ground before turning on his heel and dashed towards the little creature. He picked up the squirrel in his hands and saw a brown piece of paper on its back extruding the fire. Lee ripped of the paper and tossed it far away with only seconds later the paper exploded. He looked down in his hand to see the squirrel rubbing its head against his palm. Lee smiled and rubbed the creatures head.

"You alright little guy?" The squirrel gave a high squeak, "Whoever did this is a despicable person. Come on, let's go find out who did this." Lee brought his hand up to his chest as the squirrel jumped onto his shoulder. They leaped up through the air and disappeared back into the forest.

Things just kept getting worse and worse. Sakura already had enough troubles as it was. Being the first to recover from the assault from Shiore she found that both Sai and Sasuko unconscious. She ended up dragging them till she made a makeshift shelter under a large collection of tree roots. For the rest of the night things were somewhat calm till morning and the sound of a something in the bushes nearby. Sakura was relieved that it was only a squirrel until she saw the explosive tag on its back while it ran towards her. She managed to scare it away before it got to close but it only meant that she had to be on her guard more.

Only a short time later while she was making sure Sasuko and Sai were comfortable, they attacked. Sound shinobi, the same ones that nearly attacked Kabuto at the start of the exams, jumped out of the bushes and stood only a few yards away from her. Their leader, Dosu was his name, had told Sakura to step aside so they could fight Sasuko. Her answer was a short and blunt one. Sakura launched herself towards the trio with a kunai in hand. Her assault didn't last long, now Sakura was lying down in the dirt as she watched the sound shinobi approached her teammates.

"Kin take care of pinky."

"Yes Dosu."

"Now Sasuko is mi-"

 ** _"_** ** _Leaf Hurricane!"_**

A tremendous amount of force slammed against Dosu's body sending him flying. The other two shinobi reaction was too slow as they themselves were also sent flying with two kicks. Sakura looked up from the ground to see that Rock was standing right before her with his on arm extend towards and his other behind his back. She also noticed the same squirrel that was here earlier was perched on his shoulder. Sakura rushed over behind him and back in front of her unconscious teammates.

"Lee what are you doing here? We're enemies in the exams."

"I already vowed to you Sakura, I'll protect you with my life, enemies or no." Lee grabbed the squirrel from his shoulder and gently placed the creature on the ground. "Thank you, I wouldn't have been able to find her if not for you." The squirrel squeaked before it ran off.

Dosu, and the rest of his team, got back up from the ground and saw Lee between them and team seven. "Who the hell are you?"

Lee flashed a smile, "I'm Rock Lee, the handsome devil of Konoha."

Dosu stood there in silence for a moment looking at Lee. He pulled out an earth scroll from his pouch and tossed it towards his male teammate. "Zaku you handle Sasuko. I'll deal with these idiots."

 **"** **Sakura is in no condition to fight head-to-head."** Lee looked back at Sakura. "Sakura stay back and protect your teammates. I'll handle them."

Dosu raised his arm and pulled back his long sleeve to show the same metal gauntlet of his. He charged at Lee ready to strike. Lee simply punched the ground, with his fist entering the dirt, and pulled out a large tree root in front of him in one motion. Dosu was taken by surprise and instead of hitting Lee he strike the tree root, breaking it in half. The sound shinobi jumped back to observed what happened.

"Seems like you're a lot more stronger then you look." Dosu had his head down and waited for a response, but didn't get any. He looked up to see Lee was untying the white bandages on his arms. Without a second thought Dosu charged once more at Lee. He only managed to get halfway before Lee vanished from thin air leaving Dosu to stop in his tracks. His head snapped back as he looked down to see Lee reappear under him and had delivered a kick to his chin. Dosu went fly upwards with Lee jumping right after him. As soon as Lee was right next to Dosu in the air he bear hugged with his bandages wrapping around the sound shinobi.

 ** _"_** ** _Front Lotus!"_** The pair begun to drop in while in a spin only getting faster and faster till only a blurred spiral of wind replaced the two bodies. And it was approaching the ground quick. Before they were about to hit the ground Lee's bandages came undone and he pushed himself away from Dosu. Unfortunately for the sound shinobi he could get away quick enough and collided with the ground _hard_. A giant puff of dirt covered the impact with sand and rocks being tossed out of the dust cloud.

Lee landed not too far away from the impact. His muscles were aching, and for some reason, there was a slight ringing in his ears. **"Wait, something doesn't feel right."** As the dust cloud settled he saw not the ground underneath split opened with a body lying in it. But a large pile of dirt with two legs sticking out. The two legs began to kick and slowly more of the sound shinobi's body started to come out of the dirt pile. It was long before Dosu was out and proceeded to dust himself off.

"Thank you Zaku."

His black haired teammate brought his hands up from the ground. "Thank me nothing. If you had slammed into the ground only a few seconds earlier I wouldn't have been able to save your sorry ass."

"Noted, now it's time to finish this fool." Dosu leaped off of the dirt pile and charge at Lee again.

Lee saw this coming as attempted to move but only managed to move his foot before all the muscles in his legs began to cramp. **"Ohh no, my body isn't done recovering yet."**

Dosu was ready to strike Lee with his metal gauntlet. He cocked his arm back and swung his fist at Lee. Winching in pain, and protest from his entire body, Lee jumped back just enough so Dosu's fist barely missed. Lee brought his arms up waiting for the next attack, but it never came. He looked to see Dosu standing there with both his arms down.

 **"** **Why isn't he attacking? He must know that I'-"** Before he could finished his thought Lee's body began to convulse and his vision began to warp. He collapsed to his knees with only his arms holding the rest of his body. Lee looked up from the ground to see the blurry and warped version of Dosu standing over him.

"Our ninjutsu are very unique aren't they? Do you know what happens to the human body is exposed to about 400 hertz at close range?"

"N-n-noooo…" Lee could barely mutter through his teeth as the convulsions became worse.

"You're feeling it aren't you?" Dosu delivered a hard kick to Lee's head, knocking him out.

"Now it's your turn pinky." Dosu started to walk towards Sakura

Sakura had no idea what else to do. Not only were her teammates still unconscious but Lee was as well. She could still feel the throbbing sensation of her muscles from the earlier beating. She was hurt, low on chakra, and outnumbered. Things simply did not look good for her. **"I don't care if they outclass me in everything right now. I'm not going to let them kill my teammates!"** Sakura pulled out a kunai as she stood up from her kneeling and got into a fight stance.

Dosu tilled his head in curiosity, "You still want to fight huh? Just one more kill before Sasuko." He lifted up his sleeve to show the metal gauntlet again. He charged at Sakura with his armed cocked back as he did with Lee. Sakura tensed up waiting for the worst to come. Dosu closed in on her before sending his arm flying towards her. Sakura brought her arms up in a block and braced up for the punch. Along with whatever sound jutsu he would be using on her. But it never came. Sakura hesitated to lower her guard, wondering what would happen when she did, but slowly lowered her arms. She saw Dosu's arm was being held by a masculine hand while his shoulder was being pressed down by another hand. It was the same person that stopped him before.

"Really Dosu? I'm starting to think you like to get stopped by me."

"You again? Zaku, Kin waste this bastard!"

"Ohh I believe your friends are a little preoccupied right now." The western shinobi said. Dosu turned his head slowly to the left to see his teammates lying on the ground. The woman, Kin, was unconscious while Zaku was clutching his stomach in pain on the floor. "Since it's just you and me, let's have that sparring match." The shinobi kicked Dosu's legs out from under him and using his arm to throw him far enough away from the tree, skipping a few extra yards from skipping once he hit the ground.

The shinobi turned to Sakura, "I'll take care of the mummy. But watch out for his friend, he's pretty pissed off right now." He tilled his head and glaze away from her. "You should check on your blue-haired friend. I think she's about to wake-up." The shinobi dashed from the tree towards Dosu. Sakura turned around to see that Sasuko had started sweating and shaking profusely. She rushed over to her teammate too see what the matter was.

As the western shinobi and Dosu were fighting hand-to-hand, and Sakura was attending to her teammate, Zaku was slowly getting up. Kin and he were minding their own business enjoying the show when suddenly Kin when was knocked out and he had received a quick strike to his gut. Now he's down a teammate, hurt, and has to deal with the Konoha shinobi himself. Luckily that two of them are unconscious and the other one was in worse condition then him.

Zaku was now standing on his feet once again. "Time to blast away some leafs." He proceeded to walk towards the tree.

Sakura had no idea what was happening. One moment Sasuko was in a near seizure-like state, with her body's limbs contorting into uncomfortable positions and muscles tensing up so much that Sakura could see individual tendons popping out from under the skin. While the next moment Sasuko was lying down peacefully as if nothing happened. Sakura was about to turn back around and resume guarding till a tremendous force slammed into her back. She screamed, with no sounding coming out, as the back of her shirt was torn apart and could even feel tiny drops of liquid sliding down her skin. Sakura fell to the side hardly able to move her limbs. She rolled unto her back and saw Zaku with both of his opened palms, with tiny little metal cylinders in the middle, pointing at her. Sakura could feel her guts fall from under her as Zaku walked towards her.

"Now time to handle the Uchiha bitch-what the hell?" Zaku stopped in his tracks as he looked wide-eyed towards team seven. Sakura saw how he stopped in his tracks and how he stared in her direction. She moved her head in the same direction, her eyes also widen at what she saw.

Sasuko had finally woken up and was now standing above her teammate. But instead of excitement Sakura could only feel fear. The Uchiha's body was slouched and her head lowered looking at the ground. Pitch black flame-like tattoos were painted onto the right side of Sasuko's exposed body. Dark purple chakra was radiating around her like fire dancing against a raging wind. Sasuko raised her head and looked down at Sakura with blood red irises with two black tomoe's circling around the pupil.

"Sakura…who did this to you?" Sakura raised her shaking arm and pointed at Zaku. Sasuko's attention switched from her teammate and towards the sound shinobi. She walked out from under the tree roots and towards Zaku.

Zaku, noticing that Sasuko was walking towards him, began to form a string of hand signs. "You think just because you're purple now you can beat me? Let's see if you can handle this!" He finished the last hand sign before he raised both his opened palms at Sasuko. **_"Sound Release: Slicing Sound Wave"_** Blasts of air shot out of the small metal circles in his hands towards Sasuko. The waves of air slammed into the ground with a large dust cloud forming and clumps of earth flying outwards. Zaku had a wide grin of his face showing his white teeth. But as the dust cleared Zaku's grin faded into shock as he saw a large pile of dirt with no trace of a body.

A force then slammed behind Zaku that send him falling hard to the ground below. He then felt something grab both of his arms and pulled them back. Turning his head from the ground, Zaku looked up to see what had attacked him. It was Sasuko standing over him, holding his both his arms back and her foot in-between his shoulders.

"These arms of yours are important, aren't they?" Sasuko began to pull back his arms and stepping on his upper spine even harder. "Let's see what will happen if they are taken away from you."

"Fuck you cu-"

In one quick motion the sound of bones cracking echoed throughout the forest followed by a loud masculine scream. Sakura looked on in plain horror while Dosu and the western shinobi stopped there fighting as their attention was drawn to only a few yards away from them. Sasuko dropped let go of Zaku's arms and let his body dropped to the dirt with a dead expression on her face. She turned her gaze at the two frozen shinobi and proceeded to walk towards them.

Dosu started to step back slowly as Sasuko approached. The western shinobi stood still and looked on at the woman beneath his dark tinted goggles. **"That chakra feels…** ** _wrong_** **. It's not natural to her, like someone forced it into her. I better handle this quick."** The western shinobi rushed at Sasuko.

The Uchiha on the other hand only stopped before she started to do a series of hand signs herself. The shinobi only managed to make it half way before Sasuko finished her hand signs. **_"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire"_** Purple colored fire balls shot out of Sasuko's mouth at the shinobi. The fire collided with the ground and at the man leave the ground covered in flame. Her attention turned to Dosu who had been petrified. Sasuko resumed walking towards Dosu before she felt a quick a snap in the back of her neck. Her body slumped forward as the tattoos and chakra disappeared from her body. Before she could fall to the ground however a arm caught her and gently lowered her body to the dirt.

The blonde westerner watched as the Uchiha teen slowly closing her eyes before losing consciousness once again. He looked up from the body to see that Dosu with both of his teammates being carried on his shoulders. The sound shinobi jumped back into the forest and disappearing from view. The shinobi shook his head as he picked up Sasuko's body and walked towards the tree roots. By the time he got there Sakura was already on her knees looking as the man laid down her teammate right in front of her. He reached into the pouch on his hip and pulled out three small blue pills and handed them to Sakura. She looked up at him in confusion.

"Their specialized morphine pills. They'll numb your pain and speed up the healing process."

"Umm thank you." Sakura put two of the pills into her pouch while popping one into her mouth. She immediately felt the achiness in her muscles beginning to fade. In just a moment she found enough so she could stand on her feet with only a small wobble.

"This area is compromised now we got to move. You grab your friend here. I'll grab bushy-brows and we'll-"

"You're not taking Lee anywhere!"

"Fuck me sideways…" the two shinobi turned around to see two Konoha shinobi, one man and a woman, standing in the open. The woman had brown hair down up in twin buns as she wore red baggy pants and a loose white long sleeve shirt. The man had long dark brown hair with a white kimono top and dark blue pants. But the westerner was focused on the man's light violet, pupilless, eyes. "I assume you two are that guys teammates?"

The pupilless man stepped forward, "Yes we are. After he failed to meet up at our rendezvous point we thought the worse and went searching for him." He turned his attention to the green-clad shinobi's body. "When we saw him lying there and you fighting against that sound shinobi we thought the worse."

"Well the fighting's over. Get your teammate and go."

"And how do I know you won't attack me when I do?"

"I have no quarrel with you, umm Mr.?"

"Neji, Neji Hyuga. The woman's name is Tenten. The guy lying on the ground is named Rock Lee. Now answer my question."

"I'm smart enough to know not to mess with you after that little skirmish. Even if I did attack you and you beat me my teammates are just to come looking for me, and you, as well." The westerner turned his gaze from Neji towards Lee. "And by the looks of it you two will have enough trouble trying to get him patched up. Also believe me when I they are much less civil then I am."

"Good point. Tenten go get Lee, we're leaving"

"Yes Neji" The woman who was Tenten ran to her Lee's unconscious body.

"What your name westerner?" Neji asked

"Aww yes where are my manners. My name is Vulpes, Vuples Incluta good sir."

"I'll remember that name." Tenten was right back at Neji's side with Lee being carried on her shoulder. "Let's go Tenten, we need to find someplace safe for Lee. Till we meet again Vulpes." With that the trio leaped into the trees and left team seven and Vulpes alone once again.

* * *

(Southern forest)

Team eight had a good field of the battle that was about to take place before them. After their gate to the forest opened it was fairly easy to find another team thanks to Kiba's dog like senses, Hinata's Byakugan being able to see leagues in fronts of them, and Shino's bugs to scout ahead. It only added to their luck did they not only found an unsuspecting team, but a team that was about to fight another team. Their plan was to wait till one team defeated the other one then they would sweep in to ambush the winner. All that was left to do now was to wait for the battle to begin.

Down below team eight were six figures facing each other in a small clearing of grass surrounded by the trees. On one side was Gaara with Kankuro and Temari at his sides as he stared at his opponents across from him. Each figure on the other end of the clearing were wearing black ponchos, two of the figures had hoods covering their head, with the man in the center showing his scared face and umbrellas strapped to his back. The headband he wore had four vertical lines etched into the metal. These were shinobi from Amegakure, the village hidden in the rain, located in the land of monsoons.

The land was located on the coastline between the lands of fire and water to the south with the land of lighting to the north. The warm air from the north and the cold air constantly converged resulting in multiple storms and hurricanes bombarding the land with water. This caused the nation to be mostly consisting of massive rivers and swamps with only few areas of grassland to be used. Not only did the people of the land have to deal with difficult weather and terrain, but also the scars from the second great shinobi war.

Fifty years ago a minor skirmish among the lands of fire and lighting had erupted into the seconded great shinobi war with the land of monsoons stuck right in the middle. The land was the main battleground between the two nations resulting in much of the smaller nation's infrastructure and economy being devastated. After the war the nation's leaders had little choice but to turn to the rising tide of industrialization to save their failing country. Welcoming any industrial company with low and relaxed zoning deals, many businesses set up shop in the nation. At first it appeared that the healing process for the country could begin as more people were working and factories started rebuilding towns and cities. But things went south fast. Due to poor edicts and little oversight the companies quickly gained more influence and power then the already weaken daimyo's.

Now the lands was ruled by powerful business tycoons and yakuza factions while the people still lived in squalor and were treated little better then slaves. That is if they weren't already slaves in the human trafficking business. The shinobi of the land were little different from the companies or yakuza. The only difference, shinobi had jutsu to back them up instead of vast amounts of money or influence. They also are known to mechanized forms of weapons then other shinobi.

The man with the umbrellas on his back smiled at Gaara. "Listen pal, I'm in a generous mood today. So why don't you just hand us your scroll and we'll be on our way."

Gaara said nothing as the cork on his gourd popped off and sand started to pour out of it. Temari and Kankuro both stepped back a good distance. The rain shinobi frowned as he stood there watch the sand pour out.

"Okay punk this is your last warning." He reached for a one of the fans on his back. "Give me your scroll or be ready to face the consequences!"

The sand stopped pouring out of Gaara's gourd with his blank expression still on his face.

"That's it!" The rain shinobi pulled a single umbrella from his back and tossed it into the air. The man began doing a rapid series of hand signs. The umbrella opened as the man finished his last sign. **_"Shinobi Art: Senbon Shower"_** A hail of needles poured out of the umbrellas canopy and were heading towards Gaara.

As the needles were raining down from the sky, the sand around Gaara begun to move. In one quick movement the sand engulfed surrounded the sand shinobi in a capsule of harden sand. The multiple needles pelted the sand in a barrage. When it ended the needles were sticking out of the sand like a cactus. The sand broke apart to show that inside Gaara hadn't moved an inch while still looking dead on at the man.

The rain shinobi was seething as he reached for two more umbrellas on his back. "You little shit! Let's see if your sand can handle this-ahhh what the hell is this!" The man's screamed out as sand ran up his body so fast that before he knew it his limbs were contorted and he could move a muscle. Only the quivering expression on the man's face could be seen peeking out of the disjointed, human-shaped, sand pile.

The sand around Gaara crumbled in large chunks as the opened umbrella fell right in front of him. The redhead picked up the umbrella and slung it over his shoulder with his left hand. He slowly raised his right arm with his hand making a claw gesture. **_"Sand Coffin"_** Gaara clinched his opened palm into a fist.

The sand that had engulfed the sound shinobi exploded as crimson blood not only stained the beige minerals but chucks of red flesh shoot out as well. The man screamed in agony at the top of his lungs for only a few moments before his head slumped forwards with a blank emotionless stare and blood pouring out of his opened mouth. The Sand dissipated allowing the mangled, twisted, body to fall down into the sand pile. The two remaining rain shinobi trembled as they watched the limp body of their teammate be swallowed up by the sand.

Gaara lifted the bloodstain umbrella from right in front of him and slung it back onto his shoulder. He looked at the two remaining rain shinobi tremble across from him. He could hear his mother's voice whispering in his ear. **"Yes mother, their blood will be yours too. Just please be patient."** The whispers became louder as Gaara slowly started to raise his right arm again. The rain shinobi were about to run away but tentacles of sands grabbed onto their legs. Two blood curtailing screams echoed throughout the forest. Sending birds flying, local animals went running, and team eight looking on in silent horror.

Silence was all that could be heard the forest now. Three torn bodies of shinobi were lying in the dirt with red liquid soaking the grass beneath them. Kankuro approached the body of the man who was first to die. Checking the dead man's pockets, Kankuro pulled out a heaven scroll.

"Well isn't it our lucky day. We got both our scrolls now, let's head to the tower." He looked over at Gaara, who was looking up at the trees. "What's the matter Gaara?"

"I smell dogs…"

"It's probably just some fox or wolf." Kankuro stood up while putting the scroll into his pocket. "We should just go to the tower now. No reason to waste anymore time here."

"…Fine let's go." The three sand shinobi leaped into the forest, disappearing from sight and leaving the three dead bodies where they were.

Team eight sat on the tree branch still stun at what they saw. Shino could feel all the insects in his body hissing in distress, even before the battle took place, at the red headed shinobi. Hinata could sense the absolute negative, she would even go as far as calling evil incarnate, feeling coming from his chakra. Kiba's had his own sinking feelings when while he saw the fight went on. But it was the constant shivering and crying of Akamaru, his loyal battle hound, which had him more worried. They all the same thought cross through their mind.

The red headed shinobi was _not_ to be fucked with. And they were definitely not going to be the ones to do it.

"L-let's get out of here guys." Kiba stuttered and pointed in the opposite direction of where the Sunagakure shinobi ran off to. "And let's go that way." Hinata and Shino both nodded their heads as all three of them ran off as fast as they could.

* * *

(Tower, central forest)

The Hokage had learned to appreciate the moments of peace and quiet over the years. Living through two shinobi wars, a demon attack that nearly wiped out his village, and constant threats from other shinobi had taken a toll on his old bones. Even the slow paced duties of paperwork and meeting dignitaries had begun to tire him more and more. Once he had been worthy too hold the titles that were bestowed upon him, _the God of Shinobi_ or _the Monkey King_. But now all he wanted to do was to retire from his position and send the rest of his day spending time with his children and grandchildren. Even still his duty calls him to protect and serve the people of his village.

He sat on the couch in his white robes in a dimly lit room with a brown coffee table and another, empty, couch across from him. He held a purple cup filled with tea in his brown leathery hands as steam rose from the liquid. The Hokage brought the cup up to his white bearded jaw and took a sip. But as he was taking a sip from his cup, a series of rapid knocks banged on the door drawing his attention.

The door slammed opened as an exhausted and panicked Anko Mitarashi was standing in the doorway. "Hokage-sama the exams have been compromised! We found-"

"Calm down Mitarashi-san. Being frantic won't help the situation." The Hokage motion towards the couch across from him, "Please have a seat."

"Hokage-sama I don't think-"

" _Sit_ , Mitarashi…" Anko closed her mouth as she stomped over and sat down on the couch. The Hokage place his tea cup onto the table. "Now tell me, what is the bad news that has you so upset?"

"We found three bodies of on the outskirts of the forest. Two of them had their necks crushed while the third body had its skin completely removed." Anko brought her hand up to her left shoulder. "It's _him_ sir."

"That is bad news." The Hokage leaned back into the couch and crossed his arms. "Have any precautions been taken Mitarashi?"

"I have an anbu squad investigating the area as we speak sir."

The Hokage exhaled a heavy sigh, "I know there is more on your mind Anko, tell me."

"It-it's him sir. That snake-skin dick eating bastard is _here_. I can't let this opportunity go." Anko clutched her shoulder even harder.

"I know Anko, I know. But we both know you're no match for him."

"It's not just that Hokage-sama." Anko paused for a moment, "I think we should cancel the chunin exams, or at least, postpone them."

"And why should we do that?"

Anko was taken back at what the Hokage said. "Why should you-Hokage-sama you know much of a sick fuck Orochimaru is with his experiments." She got up from the couch and begun to pace across the room. "There are whole groups of potential candidates out in the forest that Orochimaru can get his shitty hands on. And your questioning why we shouldn't-"

"That's enough Mitarashi-san."

Anko stopped pacing as she looked at the Hokage's frowning expression. "Y-yes Hokage-sama." The Hokage motioned for Anko to sit back down on the couch. The purple haired lady walked back over the couch and sat down.

"I know his presence here has you on edge. But you mustn't let it cloud your better judgment." The Hokage picked up his cup and took a drink. "If I were to postpone or cancel the exams, which might tip Orochimaru off in a number of ways. This is the first time in almost ten years we even picked up any trace of him."

"Then what do you plan on doing sir?"

"I won't interfere with the chunin exams, it's simple as that. But I want you to inform my anbu commanders to be on high alert for the next two months. I also want you to bring me some paper and something to write with."

Anko raised her eyebrow, "Paper and writing material sir?"

The Hokage took another sip from his cup. "If Orochimaru is here in Konoha I'm sure a friend of mine will be very interested in this information."

"Should I tell anyone?"

"No, that won't be necessary." The Hokage put his cup on the table. "But I would pay a little more attention the next time you go to the hot springs."

* * *

(Western forest)

Ulysses made another slash into the trees large root with his trench knife for the twenty-sixth time. The dark skin man had been waiting for his teammates to arrive hours ago, even before the sunlight peeked through the trees. The plan was to spilt up and shadow other teams that might have the scroll they needed. After one of them confirmed which team had the scroll they would track the team and said team. The team he was following didn't have the scroll. Nor did his other teammate.

Ulysses stopped cutting the tree root and seethed his knife back into its holster. He looked up to see his bandaged teammate, Joshua, praying on his knees underneath the sunlight peeking through the trees.

Ulysses got up from his seat and walked towards the kneeling man. "Are you done yet? We need to get moving."

"The soul must be cleansed in the mornings light Ulysses." Joshua said while not looking at his teammate. "The lord's grace will guide us through this trial."

"You should be more focused on the task then your god's grace."

"This coming from a hashashin."

"At least we know when not to let our beliefs interfere with the mission." Ulysses began to look around the forest. "Besides, Vulpes still hasn't arrived yet. I am getting worried."

Joshua had finally finished his prayers as he got back up to his feet. "Nothing here could compare to the challenges he faced during the schism. I have confidence that Vulpes is alright."

A rustle through bushes caught the attention of the two westerner's attention. Ulysses took out his trench knife as Joshua dropped into a fighting stance. And out of the bushes walked out Vuples Incluta with unusual extra bounce in his steps. The dark skin re-seethed his knife and Joshua got out of his stance. Both of them stared at their teammate approaching them.

The blonde haired man stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"You're late." Ulysses said as he crossed his arms

"Oh don't give me that, besides I brought you a gift." Vulpes reached into his pouch and pulled out a black scroll. "One earth scroll, only slightly used and you're welcome." He tossed the scroll to Ulysses.

The dark skin man inspected the scroll. "Hmm good work Vulpes." He place the scroll on the inside of his trench coat.

"It's what I do."

"How did you require it?" Joshua spoke out

"Remember those sound shinobi I stopped in the classroom." Joshua nodded, "Well they should've been more aware of their surroundings. Also the Konoha shinobi aren't as weak as you thought Ulysses."

"Should we expect these leaf warriors to come after us?" asked Ulysses

"Not if we hurry up towards the tower."

Ulysses let out a sigh, "Alright you two we need to get going, double time."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

 **And here is the second chapter, I hope you all enjoyed this 9000+ word chapter. Yeah I had to skip over the written exam because not much happens during that string of episodes. Other then Ibiki revealing** **his scars, A few inventive ways of cheating, and some light Naruhina it's mostly people just sitting down and writing with a lot of inner dialogue. I also hope that you all enjoyed the action of the chapter cause there is going to be a lot more coming your way.**

 **So until we meet the next time dear readers, have a wonderful day.**


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Old Ghosts

"Talking"

 **"** **Thinking"**

 _Flashback_

 ** _Jutsu_**

Disclaimer: Even in my own world I still wouldn't own Naruto.

* * *

(Tower arena)

Sasuko could still feel her shoulder burn as she clutched it. Ever since she woke up days ago after the fight with that grass shinobi her shoulder had been getting worse and worse. Not to mention the three tomoe tattoos that was plastered onto her skin. Sasuko had woken up to find Sakura and Sai, along with that guy Kabuto she met during the chunin orientation, standing over her. She was informed about what happened while she was unconscious. Sasuko also noticed Sakura was especially tense than everyone else and was trying to avoid eye contact. The conversation eventually lead to Kabuto offering to help her team get the scroll they needed. Seeing how the time limit on the second phase of the exam was almost over, Sasuko reluctantly agreed.

The four of them found a group of rain shinobi and ambush them. It was fairly easy fight, though the number of water clones used was obscene, that got them an earth scroll. As soon as they got what they needed Kabuto said his farewell and team seven left towards the tower. It only took a few hours to reach the center of the forest with only a sealed gate standing before them. Using the two scrolls, team seven opened the gate and entered the tower. After walking through a long single corridor they came upon another door, opened it, and entered a large room.

There were twenty-one other shinobi waiting in the large concrete room with two large statutes of hands making a hand sign and four black panels over the statutes. On the upper level of the room was a single large balcony carved into the stone over the panels with two staircases flanking along the walls. The six other Konoha rookies, Neji's team, the Sunagakure team, the sound shinobi, the western shinobi, and Kabuto were all standing with some distance between each other.

Kabuto saw team seven walk in, and with a smile on his face, approached them."It's good to see you three made it to the tower safe."

"It's nice to see a relativity friendly face." Sakura took a closer look at everyone in the room. "Wait, Kabuto where's your team?"

Kabuto started to rub the back of his head. "Yeah, about that…they may not be participating."

"Why?"

"On our way here my teammates were seriously injured. Their currently being taken care of by some medical shinobi. I don't think they'll recover in time."

"Are you alright Kabuto?"

"I'm fine, just a sprained leg-" A loud horn interrupted Kabuto and catching everyone's attention. Without any second thought everyone begun to line up in rows in the center of the room. As the genin were lining up the Hokage, the two chunin instructors, a few random Konoha shinobi, and all the genin team leaders entered the room. The random shinobi were lined in front of the genin as the team leaders were lined up behind the Hokage, who had the two chunin instructors flanking his sides.

The Hokage clear his throat, "Welcome, all of you who managed to pass the second phase of the chunin exam. I know all of you have struggled, some more than others, to make it this far. And considering that the exams started off with almost two-hundred participates, well it's something to be proud of. But before we can proceed on to the third phase of the chunin exams there are two important pieces of information that the instructors have." The Hokage turned to Ibiki and nodded his head.

Ibiki nodded his head in response and stepped forward with a clipboard in his hand. "First off, which one of you is Kabuto Yakushi?"

Kabuto raised his hand, "I am sir."

"Due to your teammates extensive injuries they are disqualified from participating in the third phase of the exams. However since this part of the exam is based on individual talent you are permitted to continue on."

"Thank you sir."

"Now secondly-"

"Actually Morino-san I'll handle this." A pale, sickly looking, Konoha shinobi with long brown hair under a blue bandana interrupted Ibiki. The man stepped forward as he coughed into his hand. "Now before we start with the third phase there is a problem. Since more people have advance this far into the exams then expected we will need to conduct a preliminary tournament before any of you may proceed."

"What?! Why the hell do we have to have a preliminary?!" Kiba shouted out.

"Like I said there are too many of you. Preliminaries tournaments can be held whenever during the chunin exams if there are more genin than expected."

Sakura raised her hand, "But what about us who barely arrived? Don't we get a break?"

"The only ones who get a break are the teams who arrived days ago. For the rest of you, tough luck." The man coughed again. "However, if any of you are feeling too tired or injured, you may forfeit from the exams. This is your only chance to do so. If you don't, prepare yourself for a fight."

Sakura was worried about this preliminary situation. Not for herself though, she could handle whoever she had to fight, but for Sasuko. Ever since their encounter with the sound shinobi Sakura had the Uchiha's condition had been getting worse. Especially when they fought against the rain shinobi. Every time Sasuko was about to use a jutsu or fight hand-to-hand her tattoo would begin to flare up in pain. Even for the past few hours Sasuko had yet to let go of her left shoulder. Sakura needed to do something and fast.

Sakura grabbed a hold of Sasuko's left wrist. The Uchiha turned her head around and got right in her teammates face. "What the hell are you doing Sakura?" She barely muttered so that only the two of them could hear.

"Sasuko your hurt. Ever since fighting Shiore that strange mark of yours has been getting worse. As your teammate I'm begging you, please forfeit and get medical help."

Sasuko jerked her arm out of Sakura's grip and looked dead center in her green concerned eyes. "You know better than to ask me that Sakura. I won't let this damned mark interfere with my quest to become stronger. I don't expect you to understand my reasons Sakura, just respect them." She turned her back on her teammate.

Sakura attempted to reach out again and opened her mouth to ready to say something else. "Since no one wants to forfeit we can proceed with the preliminary matches." The sickly looking man had cut her off before she could do anything. Realizing that she couldn't do anything, Sakura closed her mouth and stood back in attention. "The rules are simple. Two people fight until one is unable to or concedes defeat."

"Is killing allowed?" Gaara asked

"Killing is allowed, but it's highly discouraged. If a fight is overly one-sided I will step in and stop it. Are there any questions?" A moment of silence filled the room as none of the genin spoke up. "Good, now bring your attention to the upper right panel. It will tell you who will be fighting first."

Everyone's attention was brought to the panel as the black square lit up in yellow lights. A rapid series of names flashed across the screen. Each person, especially the genin, watched in anticipation to see who would be the first fight. And just as fast as it had turned on, the panel stopped with two names in bright yellow lights were plastered on the black surface.

 _Ulysses vs. Sasuko Uchiha_

Sasuko smirked as soon as she saw the names. **"Spent no time getting to my match did they. It looks like I'm fighting one of the westerners then. I wonder how this will play out."**

Ulysses stared at the panel with no visible changes to his posture. The genin looked at the two shinobi, some with surprised expressions while others appearing to care less. The sick man stared at the monitor before he turned his attention back to the genin. "Alright, will Ulysses and Sasuko please step forward?" The two genin stepped out of the group and right in front of the man. "The rest of you can wait on the upper level balcony until your matches are called." All the genin, along with the other shinobi and Hokage, began walking towards the stairs.

As Sakura was walking away, Kakashi came up from behind her. "I take it has been a rough past couple of days?"

"You have no idea Kakashi-sensei. But I'm more worried about Sasuko right now."

"Is something wrong?"

"There's this tattoo that appeared on her left shoulder after we fought a grass shinobi. It looks like three tomoe's facing each other."

Kakashi was quiet for a moment as the two of them started walking up the stairs. "Thank you for telling me this Sakura." The continued in silence as they proceed towards the balcony. After a few minutes of waiting Sasuko, Ulysses, and the sickly man were the only ones remaining in the lower level arena. The two faced each other as the man gave them some distance.

Sasuko analyzed the dark skin man standing before her. **"He's taller and more muscular then me. So he might have a slight advantage in strength and speed. If only I knew what kind of jutsu westerners use."** She dropped down in her standard fighting pose with her arms raised and dropped down to a wide stance. The tattoo on her shoulder already had begun emitting a burning sensation. Sasuko winced, **"Damn it, the fight hasn't even started yet and this mark is already starting to hurt. I got to end this quick."**

Ulysses watched as the teenage girl entered a fighting stance. **"So this is the girl Vulpes told me about. No doubt that mark of hers is acting up. This might be an easier fight then I thought."** Reaching down with his left hand, he pulled his trench knife out of its holster.

The sick shinobi's eyes darted back and forth between the genin before him. "Alight, let the preliminaries," He raised his right arm over his head. "Begin!" The man brought down his arm in a quick chopping motion.

Ulysses rushed Sasuko and delivered a left hook with his knife. The Uchiha stepped back, allowing the hook to pass her, but Ulysses followed it with a right hook. Sasuko however caught his fist, and in that split second, delivered a swift front kick to his midsection. Ulysses slid back across the floor a fair distance before stopping with only the feint sensation of pain in his stomach. He looked up to see Sasuko was running towards him, yet before he could rise, she had her leg cocked back ready to for another kick. But as her kick was about to connect, Ulysses dropped his knife and grabbed the limb with both of his arms. With a quick jerk of his body, Ulysses tossed Sasuko's body over his head and slammed her against the concrete floor. Without letting go of her leg, Ulysses lifted her body again and tossed her across the room, letting her body skip like a stone skipping over a river. Ulysses picked up his knife and proceeded to walk over to the body.

Sasuko groaned as she picked herself up from the floor. When she looked to see her opponent walking towards her a rush of adrenaline filled her body. Jumping to her feet, Sasuko started to perform a series of hand signs. Ulysses saw this, immediately stopped mid-step in his walk, and begun performing his own hand signs. Sasuko was almost finished with her hand signs when her mark began to burn even worse than before. She stopped doing her hand signs and tightly grabbed the muscle of her shoulder while pain flashed across her face.

Ulysses finished his hand sign. **_"Shadow Release: Fade Step Strike"_** As soon as he said that the dark skin man's body flickered in and out of sight till he completely vanished from everyone's sight.

When the pain in her shoulder finally subsided Sasuko looked back up to see that her opponent had vanished. Sasuko looked around frantically as she pulled out a kunai and raised her guard. **_"Pulsating Fist"_** Sasuko felt a tremendous amount of force collide with her chest and sending her flying back. Crashing into the wall, even making cracks in the stone, Sasuko could feel the some of her ribs break and a copper tasting liquid filling her mouth. She saw Ulysses standing where she was with his left arm extended towards her. Sasuko fell face forward to the ground with blood dripping through her red stained teeth.

Everyone on the balcony, mostly the Konoha shinobi, stood in silence at what just happened. Sakura leaned over the metal railing of the balcony staring at collapsed teammate. "Wh-what the hell happened?"

"Your teammate just got beat. That's what happened."

Sakura turned around to see a fortyish year old bulky man with a tan skin, slicked back black hair, and trimmed beard had walked up behind her. He wore a dark red flak jacket, with a sun symbol stitched over his heart, with a black shirt underneath. Beige pants were tucked into his black boots while a board sword was strapped to his back.

He looked down at Sakura with his grey colored eyes. "My subornation has clearly won this match."

"But what was that vanishing thing he did? He just disappeared." Sakura asked

"That technique allows the user to manipulate the light around his body. To make a long explanation short, it allows him to become invisible for a certain amount of time."

"So it's a genjutsu then?"

The man raised his eyebrow, "A what?"

"Genjutsu means 'Illusion Technique.' She was asking if it was just a trick on the eyes." The both of them turned around to see Kakashi standing right behind them.

The man shook his head and crossed his arms. "You easterners and your weird names for everything, I'll never understand it. And no, it wasn't an illusion. Ulysses controlled the light around himself."

"How interesting, umm, Blackwall was it?" Kakashi asked as the man nodded his head. "But I wouldn't count my student out yet. It looks like she's getting up again." Sakura and Blackwall both turned their attention back to the arena.

Ulysses watched as the teen's body slowly rising from the floor and back to her feet. Yet something felt wrong to him, something rotten. His eyes widened once he his opponent was standing back up. The entire left side of her body was covered in flame-like tattoos. He looked even closer to see that some were slowly moving in a pattern similar to flickering fire. But it was the feral expression on her face that had Ulysses worried the most,

She bore her teeth like a savage dog would if an unwelcome outsider stumbled into its territory. But Ulysses was more drawn to her eyes. The irises had changed from the color black to blood red. A thin black line encircled the pupil with two teardrop markings overlapping the line. Sasuko began to slowly walk towards Ulysses. Yet before he could do anything the Uchiha simply vanished, only leaving a small dust cloud where she once stood.

Ulysses head snapped back as he felt a something hard smash against his jaw. It was only for a second however as he recovered and threw an uppercut at Sasuko. She countered it by grabbing his fist and landed another punch to his face. Ulysses only stumbled back as she kept delivering blows to his body and head. But every time Ulysses attempted to block or counter Sasuko would immediately dodge, block, or strike him before he could do anything. Even when trying to do jutsu, he would only be able to do one or two hand signs before being interrupted by her. He didn't know what was happening right now, but he's going to figure it out.

Blackwall was stroking his beard as he watched his subornation get his ass handed to him. "This is interesting; it appears like she knows all his moves before he makes them."

"That is thanks to Sasuko kekkei genkai." Kakashi said

"What did I say about your words Kakashi?" Blackwall said without turning away from the fight.

"It means 'bloodline limit.' Some clans across the elemental nations have certain…mutations in their genetic bloodlines that allow them to perform special abilities." Kakashi motioned towards Sasuko, "My student has the kekkei genkai called _the Sharingan_ , it means the copy wheel eye. It not only allows the user to copy movements and other jutsus just by looking at them, it can also predict an opponent's very movements."

"Sound's useful."

"It is, do you have kekkei genkai in the west?"

"No, not by your terms. Some orders and groups have special techniques that have been passed down over the centuries. They can be taught to anyone, not restricted through genetics or blood." Blackwall focused on Sasuko's markings. "I'm more curious about those strange tattoos on her skin."

"So am I…"

This rush of power was exhilarating to say the least. Sasuko had never felt stronger in all her life. The burning sensation coming from her shoulder seized getting worse, though it was still burning her. With her Sharingan now activated Sasuko could see every move he was about to make, from the slightest twitch in his fingers or tensing muscles in the arm, nothing could stop her. Though as much as she wants to teach this man what happens when you fight an Uchiha, Sasuko was getting tired. She had to end this here and now, and she knew the perfect move.

Sasuko stopped punching Ulysses and crouched down to her knees. She delivered a high kick right under his chin and sends him flying into the air. Sasuko jumped into the air right after him. Ulysses limp body hung in the air as Sasuko appeared right behind his back. With her left leg, Sasuko kicked Ulysses left kidney, and with her right leg strike the right side of his chest. Sasuko vanish from behind his back and reappeared over his head. Ulysses could only watch as his opponent's cocked back leg was right over his head.

 ** _"_** ** _Lion's Barrage"_** Sasuko kicked Ulysses face. His head snapped back as a torrent of blood came out of his noise. Ulysses body rocketed to the floor, and once it collided, smashing through the floor. Everyone looked at the unconscious body surrounded by broken concrete slabs and a trickle of blood pouring out from his noise.

Sasuko landed back onto the floor, away from her opponent's body. But once she touched down on the floor, the markings had begun to act up again. The white-hot burning sensation in Sasuko's shoulder had become even worse and it had spread throughout her whole body. She fell to her knees and let out a painful scream as the tattoos turned red and slowly receded back towards her left shoulder. To Sasuko it felt like someone was peeling off her skin with a hot knife along with her chest became tighter and more numb. After what felt like an eternity the markings on her skin finally disappeared. She collapsed to the floor with her face clenched and started dry heaving.

The sick instructor was kneeling next to Ulysses body check his pulse. "The winner of the match is Sasuko Uchiha!" He started coughing as three male shinobi wearing green scrubs rushed in with two rolling stretchers. "Can you medics hurry up?"

Kakashi watched as the medics put both his student and the westerner onto the stretchers and roll them out of the room. He looked to his pink haired student to see her with her hands over her mouth and eyes wide opened. He put his hand on her shoulder, "I'll go and make sure Sasuko is okay. And if I don't make it too yours or Sai's matches, good luck." Kakashi whispered into Sakura's ear.

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi nodded his head as he proceeds towards the stairs. But as he was walking down the steps he felt something grab onto his shoulder. Kakashi turned around to find a stern-looking Anko staring down at him. She let go of his shoulder and crossed her arms.

"Hello Mitarashi-san, did you enjoy my students match?" Kakashi smiled from under his mask.

"Yes I did, thank you for asking. Actually Hokage-sama was also impressed with your student. So much so that he wanted me to personality check how _serious_ her injuries are."

"What a coincidence, I was on my way to do the same thing. You're welcome to join me if you wish."

"I believe I'll take you up on your offer Kakashi," Anko pushed past him and proceeded to walk down the stairs. "Ladies first."

"Hmmm when have you ever considered yourself a lady Mitarashi-san?"

* * *

(Sometime later in a dark room)

Anko's could feel her blood boiling at the sight happening before her. In the middle of this dimly lit room was an unconscious Sasuko kneeling in the center of a chalk circle filled with kanji and other symbols. It also didn't help that the Uchiha's arms were bound to two far away separate pillars while the only article of clothing she had on were her black sports bra and white shorts. Anko's attention was brought to Kakashi, who was busy checking the ropes.

"Are you done yet Kakashi? I've been waiting here for forever."

"Patience Anko, I'd rather be safe than sorry." Kakashi walked over behind his student. "Especially when I'm dealing with _this_ seal."

"You do know what you're doing right?"

"Have a little faith Anko. I was the student of the greatest seal master to have ever lived in the village"

"But you're not him though." Kakashi and Anko both stared at each other in silence. Anko could feel the quiet anger directed at her behind that single eye. "Alright that was a dick move on my part. But that seal on her shoulder isn't like any other seal out there. We need to be prepared for anything."

"Spit it out, what are your trying to say?"

"What I'm trying to say is that if some shit goes wrong, we must be ready to do anything. We can't let the snake bastard get a hold of her." Anko clutched her shoulder as she looked at Sasuko. "We can't let her go through all that fucked up shit that Orochimaru has planned for her."

"Noted but I don't think it will come to that." Kakashi drew his attention away from Anko and back to his student. "Everything's ready, it's now or never."

Anko watched as Kakashi perform a quick series of hand signs with his eye closed. When he finished the last hand sign he opened his eye and pressed his left hand against the three tomoe's on Sasuko's neck while his right hand was in a fist with his index and middle finger pointing up. The chalk symbols lit up in a bright blue light along with Kakashi's hand. Just then Sasuko's eyes shot opened as she gave a loud hoarse scream. The kanji's began to slide across the floor and up Sasuko's body towards her shoulder. The Uchiha body convulsed violently, her head was shaking back and forth while she attempted to break free of the ropes and stand up. Anko had her kunai out waiting for any kind of signal from Kakashi indicating that something went wrong. \

But before any signal could be given, the last kanji slipped under Kakashi's hand. Sasuko became quiet as she lost consciousness and her body slumping forward with only the ropes keeping her up. Kakashi opened his eye and backed away from his student and motioned Anko to come over. The purpled haired woman walked over and inspected the seal. The three tomoe were encircled by small kanji with more kanji sticking out of the circle.

Anko looked up towards Kakashi. "Did it work?"

Kakashi let out sigh as he crossed his arms. "I did what I could. It's all up to Sasuko now." He started to undo the ropes around his student's wrists. "I'll take her back to the medics. You stay here and clean this stuff up. We'll rendezvous in the hallway leading to the arena. Do you understand?"

"Yes mother, is there anything else your heart desires?"

Anko saw a smile flash underneath his mask and his eye lit up. "Well…"

"No way pervert. I already know what kind of shit you're into."

Kakashi shrugged, "Hey you offered."

* * *

(Arena room)

 **"** **How many matches are left?"** Sakura thought to herself as she sat against the railing. Ever since her sensei left with that woman to check on Sasuko, five matches had already passed. The match after Sasuko was Shino against that sound shinobi Zaku. That fight resulted in Zaku's arms being blown apart from the inside due to Shino's bugs clogging up the cylinders in his hands. Sai's fight against Kabuto was one-sided, his ink creatures kept the sliver haired man at bay. The sand shinobi Kankuro fought against that other westerner Joshua, the puppets Kankuro used couldn't handle the westerner's ability to distorted and disrupt chakra. Tenten and Tamari's match was short, the sand kunoichi destroyed Tenten with her wind jutsu. Shikamaru's fight against the sound kunoichi, even though very clever in Sakura's opinion, was boring. But it was her own match that occupied her thoughts.

Sakura felt it was poetic at first when hers and, her ex-best friend and rival, Ino's name appeared on the black panel. But that feeling was soon repressed as the two of them started fighting. Though Sakura had an advantage with earth jutsu and above average taijutsu level, Ino's greater genjutsu and evasion skills managed to keep the battle relatively even. She was about to give in till she heard someone cheering her on. Sakura had looked up to find that Rock Lee was cheering her on. She couldn't explain it but something inside her found new strength to push on. With the new found will to fight, Sakura pushed on. But even with this renewed strength Sakura was hardly able to overcome Ino's defense. The blonde hair kunoichi used some sort of concussive blast against her. Sakura felt proud however because before she lost conciseness, she had managed to land an earth jutsu, rendering Ino incapacitated. She later found out that since both of them were knocked out, the match was declared a tie. It meant that neither of them would advance to the third phase.

Sakura wasn't left to feel ashamed for long. Once she returned to the balcony a warm welcome by Lee, in a tight energetic hug, and Vulpes oddly enough. Lee congratulated her on how she gave it her all and there was nothing to feel ashamed off. Sakura swore she could've felt her cheeks blushes at what Lee said. Vulpes on the other hand was more realistic with her. He pointed out how even though she had good offensive skills, Ino had just as good defensive skills, and no matter what the fight would've only been able to end in a stalemate. Sai eventually came over to them to congratulate Sakura on her match as well. Now all four of them were huddled together talking as the arena was being cleared of rubble and cleaned.

"So you guys nervous about who you are going to fight?" Sakura asked both Vulpes and Lee.

"I'm more curious then nervous." Vulpes answered, "After seeing what you shinobi can do, I can't wait to see what tricks are going to be used against me."

Rock Lee slapped him on the back. "Don't worry friend, I'm sure anyone left will give you the fight you're looking for. And if I am to fight you, then I'll give it my all!"

"I wouldn't expect any less from you Lee."

Sai spoke out, "So how do you like the elemental nations so far Vulpes?"

"Well I haven't really had a chance to sight see." Vulpes rubbed the back of his head. "Between the long boat ride, getting to Konoha, and the exams there hasn't been any time. Besides this isn't exactly my first time in the eastern lands."

"What do you mean?"

"My parents were traders and sometimes they would come over to the elemental nations. They would bring me along to help. Though that was many years ago and I only been to, oh what was it called, the land of winds if I'm correct?"

"So in a way it's like your reliving your childhood?" Sakura said with a smile

"Yeah something like that…" Vulpes looked pass the group and towards the stairs. "It looks like your teacher is back with that lady."

Sakura and Sai turned to see Kakashi walking towards them as Anko was going towards the Hokage. Sakura and Sai got up from their seats. "Kakashi-sensei your back. Please, how is Sasuko doing?" Sakura asked

"She's stable for now. But she'll have to be moved to the hospital for treatment." Kakashi noticed the battered appearances of his two students. He let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his head. "I missed your matches didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah you did sensei. My fight against Ino resulted in a tie, so I won't be participating in the third phase. But Sai won his match though."

Kakashi turned towards Sai, "Good work Sai. I would take you both out to dinner on me. But I'll have to go to the hospital and check on Sasuko."

As the five of them talked, the last of the rubble had been cleared out. Once the last piece of garbage was taken out the same horn blasted its sound again. Everyone on the balcony stopped what they were doing and shifted their focused back to the lower level. The sick man stood in the center of the arena, "Alright let the preliminaries resume!" The panel then started to flash yellow names again in a rapid sequence. Only a few seconds later the sequence had stopped and only two names were left.

 _Kiba Inuzuka vs Vulpes Incluta_

"Will Kiba Inuzuka and Vulpes Incluta please report to the arena."

 **"** **So I fight against Blondie huh? I should be able to kick his ass, but after seeing what those other westerners can do, I just don't know."** Kiba thought to himself as he looked at the Vulpes. He proceeded to the left staircase, away from the westerner.

"So I'm fighting dog boy? Wish me luck you guys." Vulpes proceed towards the other staircase.

As the two genin were making their way to the lower level Kurenai, Kiba's sensei, and her team was approached by Blackwall and Joshua. "So it appears that our subordinates will be fighting each other." Blackwall addressed Kurenai as Joshua walked over to Shino and Hinata.

"It appears so." Kurenai smirk and put her hands on her hips. "It's too bad that your student doesn't stand a chance against Kiba."

"Don't count Vulpes off yet, he's stronger then he looks."

As the two team leaders were talking Joshua was conversing with Kiba's teammates. "S-s-so Joshua d-do you think your t-teammate will w-win?" Hinata asked

"It's in God's hands now. I know Vulpes will put up a good fight, but I don't know what to expect from that Kiba though." Joshua leaned over and rested on the railing.

"You're about to find out…" Said Shino

Kiba, with Akamaru sitting on his head, and Vulpes faced each other. Kiba grabbed Akamaru and place him onto the floor. "Don't worry boy, this is going to be over quick." The dog gave a high pitched bark as it wagged its tail.

Vulpes raised his hand, "Hey instructor is he allowed having that dog with him during the match?"

"Yes, same with Shino's bugs, Akamaru and him are one in the same." The instructor said

"…Yeah that doesn't sound vague as fuck."

Kiba let out a hearty laugh. "Oh don't worry about Akamaru. You already got enough trouble right in front of you."

"This coming from the bipedal bitch."

There was a moment of silence between the two. "I'm going to enjoy kicking you're a-"

"Okay that's enough you two." The instructor stepped in. He raised his as Kiba dropped on all fours and Vulpes entered a boxing stance. "Let the match begin!"

 ** _"_** ** _Four Legs Technique"_** Kiba's body erupted in chakra as his nails and canine teeth became sharper. Before Vulpes could effectively register what was happening, Kiba dashed at him and with a single punch broke through his guard. Using the momentum to his advantage continued his attack as he kicked Vulpes head sending him flying across the room. The westerners' body tumbled on the floor before finally stopping. Vuples got back up to see multiple kunai's being thrown at him. He quickly dodged out of the way before feeling a sharp sudden pain in the back of his head sent Vulpes slamming his face into the ground.

Kiba smirked as he stood over Vulpe's body. "Who's the bitch now huh?" He began walking towards the instructor with his hands in his pockets. Akamaru started to run to Kiba. "Call the match instructor, he's not getting up."

"You're not as stupid as you look dog boy." Kiba turned around to see Vulpes standing back up. "Strike the place where I didn't have armor. That's more like common sense then being clever right?"

Kiba started to growl as hand reached into his pouch. "Now you're starting to annoy me." His hand pulled out three purple capsules. "Come on Akamaru, let's kick some ass." The white dog let out another bark. Kiba tossed the capsules at Vuples, and once collided with the ground, exploding into a large cloud of purple smoke. The teen and his dog charged into the smoke cloud.

Vulpes put up his guard again as he franticly looked around at the smoke. **"Great I can't see two feet front of me and I'm going to be attacked. I can make this work…"**

Kurenai couldn't help but feel proud as of right now. Not only had Shino won his match but Kiba was beating his opponent with ease. "I guess Vulpes isn't as tough as you said." She waited for a response but it never came. Kurenai looked to see that Blackwall wasn't paying attention to her but was stroking his beard as he stared at the smoke cloud. Kurenai shrugged her shoulders as she went back to watching the fight.

 **"** **Why are you holding back?"** Blackwall thought to himself, **"This isn't your usual m.o. Vulpes."**

Kiba jumped back out of the smoke cloud with a shit-eating grin on his face. "Alright Akamaru that's enough! I think our friend has had-"

 ** _"_** ** _Kaioken"_**

"Kaio what-"

To say Kiba felt a freight train slam into him would be an understatement. In that spilt second Kiba could see a glowing red Vulpes punching him in the stomach. He then felt three more strikes across his chest. Kiba could feel the air in his lungs leave his body as everything felt numb in his chest. He didn't feel it for long as an uppercut sent his head snapping back. Vulpes then grabbed the collar of his shirt and threw him up into the air. He proceeded to perform a series of hands signs. **_"Wind Release: Compressed Concussion Bullet"_** A shot of air propelled through the air before hitting Kiba. The limp Konoha shinobi plummeted to the ground and connect to the concrete floor.

Vuples was breathing heavily as the red glow around his body dissipated. "Now that's over with-" He saw Kiba's body starting to move and make groaning sounds. "You got to be kidding me."

Pain was the only thing Kiba could feel all over his body. One moment everything was going perfectly while the next moment he was getting his ass kicked and Akamaru-. Kiba's eyes shot wide opened as he jumped back onto his feet. "Where the hell is Akamaru bastard?!"

"Oh my associate here is currently taking good care of him." Vulpes snapped his fingers. Out of the smoke walked out another Vulpes holding a whimpering Akamaru by its front legs. "Now let me offer you a proposal. Ether forfeit the match right now or I'll let this fine gentleman beside me break the dog's neck. And I assure you, there's not going to be a better deal."

Kiba, now standing up, looked at both Vulpes' and Akamaru. He flashed a smile as he reached inside his pouch again. "Interesting offer, but I got a better one." Kiba pulled out two dark red capsules. He popped one in his mouth before flicking the other one to Akamaru. As the dog caught and ate the fly capsule, it began to change. Not only did the creature started to bark angrily and growl but its fur went from white to a dark red.

It took a few seconds before Vulpes realized what was happening. "Let go of the-" But before he could order anything, the dog got out of the grip and bit the other Vulpes' neck. The body flickered before vanishing entirely. **"There goes my mirage clone and any chance of finishing this fight easily."**

Kiba dropped down to all fours again as Akamaru jumped on his back. Chakra started to emit from their bodies and fuse together. **_"Beast Human Transformation"_** A puff of white smoke engulfed the two. As the smoke settled, instead of a human and a dog, two identical Kiba's were prowling on the ground. "Let's go Akamaru!" One of the Kiba's yelled as the other let out a bark. The two charged at Vulpes on all fours before they jumped up into the air. **_"Fang over Fang"_** The two Kiba's began spinning faster and faster till they appeared as small spiraling tornados.

Vulpes looked on as they were heading towards him. **"This is going to suck…"** He jumped back and dodged one of the spirals before leaping to the right to avoid the other spiral. Vulpes kept managing to narrowly dodge each spiral as they attempted to land a hit on them. Unfortunately his luck would run out. As he was moving out of the way he failed to notice one of the spirals heading towards him. But once Vulpes noticed, it was too late. The tornado tore into the front side of his body with bits of clothing and armor being shredded off. Once the attack finished, with Vulpes was lying face down on the floor, the two Kiba's seized and landed back onto the floor.

"Do you have any idea how long it's going to take to requisition new armor?" Both the Kiba's perked up as they saw the westerner's body begin to move. Vulpes got to his knees before unclasping what was left of his armor and tossing it to the side. He pulled the torn strap goggle strap and mask off of his lowered head. "But I think that's going to be the least of my worries." Vulpes got back onto his feet and stared back at the two Kiba's

Kiba finally got a good look at his opponents face. The goggles and mask were gone but the red bandage headband was still intact. A gash across above the right eyebrow and left cheek had blood trickling down his light olive skin face. Kiba couldn't tell what emotion Vulpes had in his crystal blue eyes. But only there was only one feature that had the Konoha genin's attention. On each of Vuples cheeks were three whisker-like markings.

Vulpes entered his boxing pose once again. "But I'll deal with them later. Right now though, I'm going to kick your ass."

* * *

 **Vulpes has revealed himself to be Naruto. How will the Konoha shinobi react? Where has Naruto/Vulpes been? Can you guess all the references in this chapter? All your questions will be answered next time on** ** _Ancient Fury_** **!**

 **No, but seriously, Naruto has finally shown up again after a few chapters. I know all of you have questions and they will be answered in the next few chapters. Just be patient, quality work takes some time. Even though I've been updating once a week. So until next time dear readier.**

 **See you all in the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Faded Memories

"Talking"

 **"** **Thinking"**

 ** _"_** ** _Jutsu"_**

 _Flashback_

Disclaimer: Who actually reads this?

* * *

(Arena room)

Sometimes there are just days where you know something bad is going to happen and then it happens. Naruto was having one of those days. Not only was the Hokage standing across from him but all the chunin exam instructors and their helpers were right by his side. Out of the corner of his eye Naruto could see the medics taking the unconsciousness body of Kiba and whimpering Akamaru away on stretchers. It also didn't help that his captain was standing between them with his hand on his sword while Joshua was busy healing his wounds. The utter silence in the room only added to the tension. But what else could the blonde suspect?

Blackwall observed the group of people standing before him. Each one of them, except their leader, was tense and ready to do something. Every time he saw someone move, even the smallest of centimeters, his grip on his sword only became tighter. Blackwall directed his gaze at the Hokage.

"I suggest you call off your underlings Hokage." Blackwall unsheathed his sword just enough so the Konoha shinobi could see the shiny stainless steel. "An incident between our two nations is the last thing any of us want."

As Blackwall waited for the Hokage's answer, the shinobi slowly reached for their kunai inside their holsters. Noticing this Blackwall slowly pull his blade just enough to show everyone the glomming metal. Yet before anything could go further the Hokage lifted up his right hand motioning his people to stop. All the Konoha shinobi immediately saw this and stopped what they were doing.

"No, none of us want that."

Blackwall seethed his sword back into its scabbard. "Good."

"I assume you already know about the situation dealing with Naruto yes?"

"His name his Vulpes-"

"Captain, there's no reason to keep using that name, they know who I am. I told you this was my home village." Joshua backed away as Naruto stood up and walked past Blackwall. Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he gave a large toothy smile to the Hokage. "Hey old-man Sarutobi, been a long time hasn't it?"

Hokage Sarutobi closed his eyes as he let out a sigh. "Eleven years Naruto. Everyone in the village thought you were dead."

"Was there a parade? I bet a lot of people were happy with that news."

"Naruto..."

Naruto crossed his arms, "Look it's not like I wanted to leave old-man. It was just, shit happened alright. I don't know what else to tell you."

"That's not an answer Naruto."

"Fine, twist my arm more why don't you. I'll tell you what happen. But can we continue this later. I really don't think this is appropriate at the moment."

"He is right Hokage-sama." The sickly man said, "We still have six competitors left waiting for their matches."

"Alright, but we _will_ finish this conversation later Naruto." Sarutobi and his shinobi walked away and back towards the balcony. With Joshua, Naruto, and Blackwall followed right behind them at a reasonable distance.

Kakashi couldn't look away from the blonde teen as the two groups proceeded towards the staircases. Images of a small boy covered in bruises, a mob of angry faces, and torn bloody clothing in a forest kept flashing through his mind. All those odd numbers of years of failed searches or wild rumors that amounted to nothing were turn on their head. Less than a hundred yards away was one of the biggest regrets Kakashi felt responsible for was walking behind the Hokage. But as he was fixated on Naruto, he failed to notice Sakura attempting to get his attention.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura shouted as she was shaking Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi came back to his senses, "Sorry Sakura, my mind was somewhere else."

"Yeah about that, what the hell was that?"

"A complicated situation Sakura. I'll explain it too you later, and trust me, it's a long one."

Naruto could feel all the eyes of everyone focus on him as he stepped onto the balcony. The Hokage return to far back section of the balcony with some of the shinobi looking back at him. He felt uncomfortable when he noticed the purple hair instructor was eyeing him more intensely then the others. Naruto didn't dwell on it long as Rock Lee and Sakura ran to him. He stopped his captain and teammate before they could do anything.

"Vulpes what was-"

"Naruto" the blonde teen said cutting off Rock Lee

"What?"

"Naruto, that's my real name."

"Then why did you call yourself Vulpes?" Sakura asked

"To avoid the situation that happened in the arena."

"Yeah about that, what happened?!" Sakura threw out her arms.

"Well remember when I told you two that I've only been to the elemental nations a few times when I was little." The two Konoha genin nodded their heads. "I may have exaggerated a bit. I'm actually from the elemental nations, more specifically, this village."

Sakura and Lee were both dumbfounded.

"Yeah right, we never even heard of you, let alone seen you." Sakura pointed out.

"I wouldn't be surprised. I'm what two, three, years older than the both of you? I was kicked out of the village when I was about six or seven. I wouldn't expect ether of you to remember me."

"Wait, why were you kicked out of the village?" Lee asked

Naruto chuckled, "I don't think I'm allowed to tell you two. Isn't that right Cyclops?" He said towards Kakashi.

The small group's attention was shift to Kakashi who only shrugged. "He's right, it's an s-rank secret, punishable by death. Though it hasn't been enforced in years."

As the small group was talking with one another, Gaara was staring at Naruto. Ever since the blonde teen arrived his mother wouldn't stop whispering in his ear about how that person smelled of foxes and lizards. **"Why does he frustrate you mother?"** More whispers filled his ears as a grin slowly formed on his face. **"Yes mother you will have his blood. I only need a moment alone with him."**

The other sand shinobi watched as Gaara's face went from his normal stoic look to that of a feral dog. They followed his gaze and it was directed at Naruto. Each one silently wished the blonde teen luck. Hoping that when Gaara meets him, that his death would be swift.

The sick instructor watched as finally everyone had finally returned to the balcony. "Now since that is taken care, let the next see who'll be the next participates." The black panel once again lit up in yellow lights as fewer names started flashing across the screen. In only a few seconds' two names were left on the black screen.

 _Hinata Hyuga vs Neji Hyuga_

"Will the two Hyuga's please report to the arena?"

Neji could feel his blood boil when he heard his cousin's name being called. He looked over at Hinata too see her head down and she clutched her arm. The disgust Neji felt only fuelled his rage as he clenched his fists and nostrils flare up. Realizing what was happening he took a deep breath and exhaled. Feeling that his anger had been lowered, Neji proceeded towards the staircase and arena. Not looking back at his cousin as he walked away from her.

Hinata had no idea what to focus on. There was no doubt in her mind that she should be more concerned about fighting her cousin that was not only stronger then her, but also hated her very existence. Yet the appearance of that blonde westerner had her thoughts somewhere else. Hinata had only met one other person in her life that had similar whisker like markings and blue eyes nearly ten years ago…

 _"_ _Come on Hyuga do something! Or is that stuff about Hyuga's being strong just lies?"_

 _A small girl with a dark blue bowl cut wearing plain black shirt and pants was kneeling on the ground with tears running down her cheeks and a large purple welt on her cheek. The girl looked up and saw three older boys circled around her with grins on their faces. The one on her left was chubby then the other two while the one on her right had a bandage covering his noise. The boy in the middle, who wore a red baseball hat, was standing over her with his arms crossed._

 _"_ _Since you're not going to do anything then why don't you bow to your betters?"_

 _The boy in the hat placed his foot on the girls head and pressed down till she was face first in the dirt. All three of the boys started laughing as the girl struggled to push herself up. The dirt rubbed into her welt causing the stinging pain to worsen. Only her tears numbed the pain, if only slightly._

 _"_ _Leave her alone!"_

 _A young voice shouted out from behind the three boys. Each boy turned around to see who was interrupting their fun, with the hat wearing boy inadvertently taking his foot off the girl. With the foot off her head, the girl looked up from the ground to see who told her attackers to stop. It was another boy with shaggy blonde hair, looking the same age as the others, wearing a dirty white shirt and torn black shorts. But the whisker markings on his cheeks stood out to her._

 _The boy in the hat smiled, "Don't worry guys it's just the dead-last. Nothing to worry about."_

 _"_ _I said leave her alone!"_

 _"_ _What are you going to do about it dead-last? Was the last beating we gave you not enough?"_

 _Without pause the blonde boy charged at the boy with the hat, tackling him to the ground. The other three kids watched as the blonde boy repeatedly smash his fists against the other boy's face. It didn't last long however as the other two boys grabbed the blonde off of their friend before proceeding to beat him up. The girl only watched as her blonde savior doing his best to fight against the other three boys. All she wanted was for this only thing to be over with._

 _"_ _Hinata-sama!"A masculine voice shouted out of nowhere. The three boys, once hearing this, stopped attacking the blond and ran as fast as they could from the other two kids. Once they were gone the blonde boy turned to the girl and started walking towards her._

 _"_ _Hey are you alright-"_

 _Before the boy could finished a figure jumped in between him and the girl. A man with short dark blue hair wearing a blue kimono top with white trim and dark blue pants stood right in front of the boy. He could feel the disgust coming from the man's pupil less violet eyes._

 _"_ _Leave pariah."_

 _"_ _But that's girls hurt-"_

 _"_ _I said leave"_

 _The boy backed away slowly with his head down and hands raised. The man turned away from the boy as he picked up the girl in his arms before walking away. As the two were leaving the girl shifted her gaze back to the boy. She was he had lowered his hands and walked away with his head still down till he faded away in the distance…_

"Hinata are you alright?"

Hinata looked to see Kurenai shaking her shoulder, interrupting the flashback. "Yes sensei I-I'm fine." She walked away from her teacher and towards the arena.

The annoyance was starting to get to Naruto. Ever since stepping back onto the balcony he had been bombarded by nonstop questions from Sakura and Lee while Sai remained silent only listening to his answers. Naruto had indulged them for the first few questions, but now all he wanted to do was watch the match. He watched as the two people entered the arena. But it was how much the two looked like one another and their last names that had Naruto most interested. It was his turn to ask a question.

"Are those two related?"

"Well yeah their both Hyuga's, probably cousins. Didn't you know that?" Rock Lee answered

"No I didn't."

"What?! How could you not know of the Hyuga clan? You were born in this village."

"Umm I left about ten years ago, remember? How much do you remember when you were seven?"

Sakura stepped in, "The Hyuga clan are one of the most powerful and oldest clans in Konoha. They were one of the three original clans that established the village and also the last. The other two have nearly died out." She leaned against the railing, "All you need to know is that their very strong and dangerous."

Neji glared at his meek cousin standing across from him. He almost found it hilarious that she believes that she might have a chance against him, almost being the key word. Neji dropped into the traditional Hyuga battle pose with his right arm extended at Hinata, bring his left arm back, while parting his legs away from each other.

"Give up Hinata-sama, give up, you can't win this. I'm only extending this courtesy because we're related. If you don't, expect no mercy from me."

Hinata's body fidgeted before she dropped into the same stance as Neji. "I-I won't let my t-t-team down cousin."

Neji sneered, "So be it."

Naruto couldn't help but feel memorized by the two Hyuga's fighting. Each movement they made appeared as flowing water with each strike thrown or blocked having the same fluidity. Veins near their eyes popped out from under the skin had Naruto intrigued along with the bursts of blue chakra coming from their open palms. His gaze immediately went to Joshua, who was eyeing the Hyuga's with intensity. The blonde had a fairly good idea what he could be thinking.

"Like looking in a mirror Josh?"

Joshua kept observing the battle, "No, they are more refined and precise. Much more dangerous."

Kakashi was talking with, his _rival_ and comrade, Might Gai about his student Neji. Gai's appearance was a near carbon copy of his other student, Rock Lee, expect for his green flak jacket, signifying his jounin rank, and his much stronger jaw line. Kakashi was right in the middle of listening about what kind of training Gai had put his team through, having them run nearly a thirty laps around the village for a warm-up to be specific, till he heard what Joshua said. Both he and Gai both stopped talking as they shifted their focus to the bandaged westerner.

"What do you mean by precise?" Kakashi asked

Joshua turned to Kakashi, "You know what I mean. They attack the chakra pathways and internal organs. But what has me curious is they know where to strike."

"You're quite well informed about the Hyuga fighting style just by watching them." Gai pointed out

"My people use similar techniques. But instead of precision towards a single point, we shred the whole area with overwhelming force. It takes too long to memorize the whole network." Joshua points at the two Hyuga's, "But those two know exactly where to hit. It's like they can literally see the chakra network." He went back to observing the two fighters.

Now Kakashi knew the answer to Joshua's question. The Hyuga clan had its only Kekkei Genkai called the Byakugan, or _All Seeing Eye_ , that allowed a clan member to see nearly anything. From vast distances, seeing through solid objects, and even the entire chakra network. But the issue for Kakashi wasn't how the Hyuga's Byakugan worked. It was whether or not he should tell Joshua.

His, along with the other westerners, motives were completely unknowable to Kakashi. He had no idea why they were here given the near isolation between their lands and the Elemental nations. He already explained the Sharingan and bloodlines to Blackwall. Though doing so did provide some details about how their shinobi operate. But with the reappearance of Naruto among them had Kakashi wondering what other secrets they were hiding. An idea popped in his head.

"From what I understand that fight style of theirs is meant to attack the chakra network and is taught at a young age. Maybe they devout an extensive amount of time memorizing the chakra points?" Kakashi shrugged, "The Hyuga are very protective of their secrets."

Gai looked at Kakashi questioningly before realizing what he was trying to do. "Kakashi is right, my youthful student's fighting style is one of the most ferocious I've ever met. And he's only considered a beginner when compared to older members of his clan."

"Maybe your right, but there's still something not right about them." Joshua said

Hinata couldn't help but feel her aching muscles getting heavy and her breaths of air getting shorter. She could see that her cousin was also taking slow short breaths as well. Hinata could see bright blue lines of chakra run throughout his body with little sections around his chest and arms flickering. She didn't know how bad her chakra network's condition was, but it had to be at least as bad as Neji's. Ignoring the strain on her muscles, Hinata dropped back into her fighting stance.

Neji tensed up, "So you still think you have a chance?" Hinata charged at him, "Fine then…" The two Hyuga's charged at one another as everyone watch in anticipation. Hinata threw her left arm directed at Neji's heart while he threw his right arm at his cousin's heart.

The room was silent as the two genin were currently interlocked. Neji held Hinata's left arm in his hand while his right palm was against the center of her chest. Blood poured out of Hinata's mouth as she coughed with her head started wobble. Neji slowly pulled back her jacket sleeve to expose small red blisters scattered all over her pale skin of her arm. Despite her blurry vision Hinata could make out the numerous red dots on her arm.

"H-h-how? You didn't e-even…" Hinata couldn't finish her words as everything around her started spinning.

"Surprised that a member of the branch family was capable of this."

Hinata stumbled back slowly once she was let go. Neji looked on as his cousin struggled to stay standing up and more blood poured out of her mouth onto the floor. He could feel his anger flare up again at his pathetic excuse of a cousin. His father's face flashed through his mind. Neji felt something snap inside as rushed towards Hinata with his arms ready to strike.

Fear was all that Hinata could feel now. She could barely stand on her wobbling legs and her entire body felt heavier than ever before. But even with her vision blurred, along with slow encroaching blackness replacing the blurriness, Hinata could still see the rage in her cousin's eyes. She tried to move any of her limbs to block or dodge but with no avail. Seeing no other way, Hinata simply closed her eyes, waiting for the final hit.

After what felt like an entirety to the Hyuga waiting for death to take her, Hinata opened her eyes. The sight before her, or what she could make out due to her quickly vanishing vision, left her dumbfounded. Neji was lying down on the floor clutching his jaw and a blonde hair figured standing between them with his arm raised as if he threw a punch. Hinata felt her chest go numb causing her to collapse to the floor with a hard thud echoing out through the room. The last thing she saw before everything went black were concerned blue eyes looking at her and whisker marks.

Naruto looked down at Neji with full contempt. After seeing Neji let go of Hinata and letting her stumbling back Naruto put two-and-two together about what the male Hyuga was going to do. Once Neji charged he jumped into action. In One quick and unsuspecting uppercut the Hyuga was sent back flying a few feet before slamming to the ground. Naruto sighed in relief having managed to buy some extra time for Hinata. But that moment of relief vanish once he heard a loud thud noise behind him.

He turned to see the body of the teen girl lying down on the floor and rushed to her. Dropping to his knees right next to her, Naruto placed his index and middle finger on the side of her neck. He watch as Hinata's eyes slowly closed till they were shut. Naruto turned his attention to the instructor.

"Call the damn medics already! Her pulse his fading fast."

* * *

(A short time later)

If there was any shred of hope about keeping his presence low-key, it was gone now. Naruto could feel everyone's gaze directly pointing at him. After Hinata was taken away from the medics the instructor declared Neji the winner of the match due to outside interference. A heated exchanged between him and the Hyuga eventually resulted in Naruto promising a blood oath that he would, to paraphrase, kick his ass for trying to kill Hinata.

The fact that it was Hinata's blood he swore on only strengthens his resolve to fulfill his promise.

Rejoining everyone on the balcony was mixed. Some of the Konoha shinobi thanked Naruto for stepping in with the first being Hinata's team leader Kurenai. A cold shiver ran up his spine however as he was distracted by her dark crimson eyes. Except for Neji sending an occasional smug smile his way, most of the other shinobi accepted what happened and moved on waiting for the next match to start. Though Naruto felt something foreboding at the disappointing look Blackwall sent him. He couldn't wait for the next match to start.

Out of the twenty-two shinobi only four remain waiting for their matches to start. The hefty genin Choji couldn't stop shaking as sweat started sliding down his brow. To his far left Dosu and Gaara were standing patiently waiting to be to be called while on his right Rock Lee was shadow punching. Choji let out a loud disgruntled groan, catching his teammates and sensei's attention, as he slumped against the metal railing.

"Great out of everyone and I have to fight against one of these psychopaths. Maybe I should just forfeit while I still can."

Asuma put his hand on Neji's shoulder. "Don't worry Choji you'll do fine. How about this, if you win your match I'll take you out to barbeque, all you can eat."

"Really sensei?" Choji perked up

"You better believe it."

Shikamaru watched as his best friend shot up with fire in his eyes and proclaiming he would fight anyone here. He sighed and shook his head, **"He's the only person I know who would travel through hell and back for a free meal."** His gazed shifted between the three other genin that were left. **"But against these guys, I think that he'll need that motivation."**

Rock Lee couldn't help but feel excited right now. He'd been watching his contemporaries fight their matches for what felt like hours to him. Lee attempted to attack at the air and stretch to calm himself down. But it did little to help his excitement. The thought of him being able to show off his own strength and skills to everyone, especially Sakura, made him giddily.

Gai looked at his student doing his usual warm-up routine. "Lee you know that won't get you a match quicker."

"I know Gai-sensei and I don't care if I'm next for last. I will still fight with everything I have."

"That's the spirit Lee."

"Will Gaara of the Desert and Rock Lee please report to the arena?" The instructor shouted out.

"Ha! I knew if I said I'll wait till the last round my name would be called next!"

"Good call Lee, now listen up." Gai grabbed onto Lee's shoulders, "This is not one of our sparring matches we have during training. I want you to fight with everything you got and that's an order. Now go and show your opponent your outstanding power of youth!"

"Yes Gai-sensei I will!"

His mother hated how those two were yelling like idiots. Gaara watched as his green jumpsuit wearing opponent leaped off of the balcony, ricocheting off the hand statue, and landing onto the arena floor. The cork of his gourd popped off and sand poured out around him. But despite his stoic appearance, on the inside, Gaara's blood felt warm and tingly. He hopes this strange person would make mother very happy.

Rock Lee entered his signature stance with his right arm extended towards Gaara while his left arm was tucked behind his back and legs spread apart.

The instructor eyes darted between the two genin before he raised his arms. "Let the match begin!"

* * *

 **Naruto's age has always bothered me for some reason. In the beginning of the first series it's said that Naruto Uzumaki failed the academy exams three times. And we can assume that the final exams of the academy is taken at the end of the year with a one, two at most, month period between school years to reorganize classes, accept new students, take back genin who failed their jounin tests, etc. Also let's face it; canon Naruto wasn't smart enough to take the exams earlier than anyone else. So by that logic he should've been about 2-3 years older than the other rookies. But to be honest it is a nitpick, there are a lot of more serious problems in the series then an age dispute.**

 **I hope this chapter manages to at least calm those of you with tons of questions about what happened with Naruto. Like I wrote earlier in the chapter, the setting and situation wasn't a appropriate time for Naruto to explain what happened to him to everyone. And don't worry the next chapter will conclude the preliminaries so we can get into that back-story all of you have been asking for.**

 **But anyways I'll see all of you in the next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: An Overdue Explanation

"Talking"

 **"** **Thinking"**

 ** _"_** ** _Jutsu"_**

 _Flashback_

Disclaimer: If anyone owned anything in the Fanfiction Community, why are they here?

* * *

(Konoha hospital, shinobi ward)

For the first time in almost two week Naruto finally had a moment to breath. Even if the air did taste like that disgusting antiseptic crap. Only a day earlier the preliminaries had finally come to a close with him, Neji, that sound genin Dosu, Sai, his comrade Joshua, the weird bug guy whose name he couldn't remember, Shikamaru, Sasuko, along with the two sand genin advancing to the third phase of the exams. Naruto was just relieved that he had a month to train and rest before the final part of the exams could begin. But it was the sickening match he had to watch between Lee and that psychotic red-haired bastard from the Sunagakure.

The match had started out somewhat simple. Lee's physical strength punched through Gaara's sand defenses with some gasps that came from the other of the sand shinobi. Naruto was confused at their actions, like they never seen their teammate been hit before. Lee's speed was actually fairly impressive, dodging each sand attack Gaara sent his way without single grain on him. After he removed his leg weights, especially heavy ones if the two large craters were any indications, Rock Lee _literally_ ran circles around the sand genin.

But after that everything went south.

The downright animalistic face Gaara made brought back old memories Naruto. Those same wide unblinking bloody red eyes with teeth fully bared as the sand around the redhead like an octopus' tentacles. The psychotic look always meant that someone was pushed beyond their breaking point and reverted to some kind of feral animal. Naruto preferred not to think of how many times he had to put down a fellow squad mate during the northern uprising. The difference between ally, enemy, or simple civilian seize to matter. All those poor broken sods cared about who was the next person they killed. Yet he noticed something different about Gaara's broken state, like if it sand genin was still in control.

Lee at first managed to dodge or block most of the attacks. But the green clad genin's luck had ran out. The sand ripped through his clothing and shredded his skin continuously. It looked about over until Lee unleashed some last minute technique. His muscles became larger as chakra erupted from his body, expelling the sand around him. Before anyone could really register what happened, Lee appeared in front of Gaara and send the red haired teen flying across the room with chunks of hard sand scattering about.

His sensei Gai, who disturbed Naruto to no on how identical their appearances were, explained everything.

Rock Lee's chakra network was, to simply put it, a complete and utter mess. His pathways didn't properly develop resulting in him to not being able to perform the most basic of ninjutsu or genjutsu. To compensate Lee had focused purely on perfecting his taijutsu to the point that his entire body was a weapon that stood out among other shinobi. Made even more evident at the forbidden technique Lee had used.

Known as the eight gates technique, Gai explained that whoever used the technique could override the chakra pathway's limits to amplify the users' strength and speed by at least double. Naruto clearly understood this; his kaioken used the same principle of increasing his own power to a certain degree. Yet the dangers of the eight gates are much more present and deadly. There was a limit on how many times he can use the kaioken and for how long to avoid the damage to his body caused by tremendous amounts of stress. On contrast with the eight gates technique, Lee had no limit to increasing his power until he decided to stop. But the price for having the near limitless strength is the stress could not only shred his muscle and destroy his bones. Death was a high possibility if the technique is used for too long.

And that was exactly what happened during the match.

Once Lee unlocked the fourth chakra gate he pulverized Gaara with a barrage of attacks that ended up in half of the arena floor being reduced to rubble with the sand genin lying down in a crater. When Lee exited from the eight gates he collapsed to his knees. His limbs were barely able to move and could hardly keep his head up. But when everyone taught the match was over, torrents of sand came out of the rubble and shot towards Lee.

The sounds of bones cracking and hoarse screams still lingered in Naruto's mind. If it wasn't for Gai stepping in the last second Rock Lee would've been the first, and only, death of the entire preliminaries.

Naruto's theory of Gaara's mental instability was only further cemented when Gaara's expression revert back to when he was declared the winner of the match. It didn't help that the sand genin walked back to the balcony like nothing happened in the arena. The only thing that made Naruto even more worried was that there is a fifty-fifty chance that he has to fight the psychopath.

The next phase of the exams, another tournament oddly enough, would certainly be interesting. The first match would be Naruto against Neji, the blonde couldn't help but smile at his luck of being able to fulfill his promise early. The second match would be Sasuko fighting against that raging psychopath Gaara.

 **"** **I should ask Joshua to pray over her or something. She'll probably need it."**

Speaking of his comrade, Joshua match was going to be against that weird buy guy. Shino if Naruto remembered correctly. Whoever wins that match would fight against that other Konoha genin Shikamaru or the sand kunoichi Temari. The final match would be Sai fighting against the sound genin Dosu, who made quick work of Choji during the final preliminary match.

"Naruto are you listening to me?"

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts. His attention went back to his team. Joshua and Blackwall were standing to the side of a bedridden Ulysses. All three of them were staring at the blonde.

"Sorry, my mind was elsewhere."

"Well pay attention. It's your situation we're discussing here." Ulysses said

"It went quiet well in the arena don't you think. You should've seen it Ulysses, all the Konoha shinobi and the Hokage were ready to attack us, fortunately thanks to my fast and clever wit-"

"That's enough Uzumaki."

"Yes, Blackwall sir."

"Now tell me, is your revealed identity going to be a problem? I don't want people interfering with our training or Praetor Marcus visit to Konoha."

"If every shinobi who was there keeps their mouths shut then we don't have to worry about too many people interfering in our affairs. Besides they'll want to deal with me not you guys." Naruto leaned back into his chair, "That's why I'm going to be training by myself for the next month."

"Any particular reason Uzumaki?"

"When the Konoha shinobi figure out that I'm not with you three they should stop bugging you. No promises though."

Three sharp knocks from the door caught everyone's attention. Blackwall walked across the room and opened the door. Standing outside the room was black trench coat wearing Ibiki Morino holding a brown box and folded piece of paper tied with a string. Behind him was Anko leaning against the hospital wall with her arms crossed.

"Mr. Morino, Ms. Mitarashi, this is unexpected."

"Indeed it is Blackwall-san. Mitarashi-san and I will be escorting Naruto Uzumaki to meet with the Hokage. Also, our village leader instructed me to deliver this gift the young man. We'll be right here when he is ready to go."

Ibiki handed the package to Blackwall before the swordsman closed door and rejoin the other westerners. He handed the package to Naruto, who proceeded to read the letter in silence.

"What does it say?" Ulysses asked

"It says that I'm too report to the council chambers located in the Hokage Tower. Seems like the old man wants that explanation now then later." Naruto put the letter in his pocket as he started to untie the string that sealed the box. "The letter also says that inside the box is a little apology gift for my mask getting destroyed during my match. Guess I don't have to use your spare bandages anymore Joshua-Ohh real fucking funny old man."

"What's wrong Naruto?" Joshua said

Instead of saying anything Naruto pulled a white mask out of the box and held it up for his squadmates to see. Orange lines were etched the around the eye holes as orange colored triangles were painted onto the forehead. The painted mouth was shaped like that of a canine with long orange with whisker-like lines stretching across the cheek areas. The entire appearance of the mask gave off a distinct fox look.

"I don't know if this is supposed to be a clue for the other people to figure out who I am or it's supposed to be ironically funny."

"Other people, what other people?" Blackwall questioned his subornation

"I was one the biggest pariah's this village has ever had. Not mentioning the fact that I was ran out of village when I was only a kid. Now that same kid has made an unexpected return to his home village now almost a man. Of course there's going to be other people there."

"Just what exactly did you do to get driven out of this village?"

"I was born."

* * *

(Council Chambers)

Sarutobi couldn't wait for Naruto to appear and by the looks of the other people in the room, they were as well. He originally only planed on speaking with the young man somewhere secluded and in private. And not two days later his advisors and every shinobi clan leader approached him about a secret meeting between him and a member of the western shinobi. Sarutobi didn't know who informed them, he ordered every Konoha shinobi there not to tell anyone of Naruto's return, but what was done was done. He looked around at the other nine figures in the room.

Sitting in front of him were his the members of his personal counsel who helped him decide on matters that affect the village as a whole and every shinobi in the nation of fire. His old teammates Koharu, an elder woman with silver hair tied in a bun, and Homaru, and elder man with grey spiky hair and green-framed glasses, sat to right with dark haired crippled Danzo sitting in the middle. During his and Danzo's youth the two were both rivals vying the position of Hokage. Though he won the title in the end he couldn't dispute the intelligence and military mind of his former rival. Sarutobi made him the commander of the Anbu forces and all of their respected branches. All three of his associates helped him greatly when dealing with the other shinobi clans that resided in Konoha.

To the distant right was the Hyuga clan leader Hiashi sitting at his desk reading a scroll with his violet pupils-less eyes. The stoic man had long black hair that reached passed his shoulders as he wore a plain white kimono tied at the waist with a dark blue sash. Leader of the most influential and powerful clans in all of Konoha, very little can be done without the near forty-year-old man's support. Fortunately for Sarutobi, Hiashi preferred not to cause problems and would even try not to use the power he wields. Except when something directly involves the Hyuga clan. Though the Hokage wished that another clan of Konoha would use their newly acquired power more wisely.

The Inuzuka clan had been a recent torn in Saurtobi's side. Ever since the Uchiha massacre a power vacuum has existed waiting to be filled. And the matriarchal clan of dog users had made it their personal mission to fill the vacuum. The woman responsible for this is the clan matriarch Tsume. The feral beauty had short shaggy brown hair and wore the traditional jounin uniform with the iconic red Inuzuka fang markings on her cheeks. Sarutobi had to give the woman credit by taking her near obscure shinobi clan to a somewhat decent political presence in Konoha in less than ten years. He only wishes that the rise of the Inuzuka had been more tactful. Despite their undying loyalty to the village, Tsume and the rest of the Inuzuka clan were mostly just interested in advancing their own goals with little care for making allies.

She was currently talking to the clan leaders Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, and Inoichi Yamanaka. Former teammates during the third great shinobi war, creators of Ino-Shika-Cho formation, and childhood friends. Together as allies the three clans helped each other to become the financially strongest clans in the village. The Akimichi owned a large share of the farms and ranches that supplied Konoha. They intern sold their produce in the multiple Yamanaka shops scattered around the land of fire while the Nara handled the paperwork and the other technicals of business. Unlike some of the other clans who preferred their secrecy, the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka didn't mind the spotlight or being talked about.

In the far corner of the whole room sat Shibi Aburame, in his high collared trench coat and dark tinted glass, not interacting with anyone else. The man was the leader of Konoha's most enigmatic shinobi clan, the Aburame. Known for allowing a colony of a certain kind of insect inside their bodies that helps them fight enemies by ether eating their opponent's chakra or psychical body. The clan reclusiveness, to a point of living on the very outskirts of Konoha, has given rise to many rumors about the Aburame. One of the most famous being how they abduct small children and infect them with insects. It's incredibly rare to see an Aburame outside of their compound or by themselves without a squad. The sure fire only way for even the Hokage to interact with Shibi was ether special or emergency meetings such as this one.

Sarutobi patiently observed the other people in the room as he leaned back into chair. All he could do was to wait for Naruto to arrive. He hoped that the young man enjoyed the mask. During one of Konoha's past summer festivals Sarutobi found the fox mask at a random costume booth. Having no memorabilia of the boy, other than an old birth certificate, he bought the mask as a reminder and to honor his memory. But when Naruto's own mask was destroyed by Tsume's son it was the least Sarutobi could do by allowing his identity to remain a secret to Konoha. That is until he shows up to the council chambers.

But just as Sarutobi was thinking of Naruto and the fox mask, a quick series of knocks beat against the large set of double doors. The Hokage, clan heads, and advisors attention went towards the opposite side of the room. The doors opened to reveal Ibiki and Anko walking side by side into the room. They both bowed to the Hokage and everyone present.

"Hokage-sama the western shinobi is waiting to speak with you." Ibiki said

"Thank you Morino-san, Mitarashi-san. That will be all for today, both of you."

"Yes Hokage-sama" The two shinobi said in unison before bowing one more time and walked out of the room.

Naruto didn't know what to expect. He'd assumed that it would be a simple private conversation between him and the old man. But when he left with the two instructors from the hospital Ibiki informed him that he would be talking with the entire shinobi council instead. At least the trip over to the Hokage tower wasn't as awkward as he thought. Only a few moments after they left the hospital Anko all of a sudden started flirting with him. Not wanting to be rude, more like not wanting to pass up the chance to converse with a gorgeous woman, Naruto flirted back.

At first it had caught Naruto off guard at how openly Anko was acting. Back in the Imperium fraternizing with superior officers or other shinobi, let alone foreign shinobi, was a very serious offense. At best the person caught fraternizing would be given a few lashes and moved to a different squad. At worse, well Naruto preferred not to become a eunuch. From basic training he and everyone were taught to put the mission, the royal family, and the empire first before anything else. Even personal attachments are meant to be severed if it jeopardized any of the three duties he was sworn to uphold. Thoughts of that cold numbing winter so many years ago flashed through his mind…

"Alright brat they're ready to see you now."

A masculine voice called out to him before he could reminisce about _those_ memories again. Naruto turned his head to see Ibiki and Anko walk out of the council room. Naruto pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning on.

"Let's get this over with." The blonde muttered to himself

But as Ibiki walked passed, Anko stopped him by place her hand on his shoulder. She brought her lips up against his ear.

"Good luck kid. Just remember, no matter what those stuck-up assholes say, don't let it get to you."

"I'll keep that in mind ma'am."

"Anko are you coming or what?" Ibiki shouted

"Yeah, yeah cool your tits Ibiki!" Anko responded, she only got about a few feet before turning around back to Naruto. "Hey kid if you're interested I'll be in the bar called _the Rooster & Kitten_ tonight in the red-light district later. Come by when you're done talking with the Hokage."

"Anko!"

"Okay Ibiki! See ya later Naruto."

Naruto couldn't help but gaze at the Anko's swaying hips. **"I guess I can report back to Blackwall tomorrow."** He thought to himself. Turning away from the scantily clad kunoichi, Naruto proceed towards enter the council chambers.

Sarutobi and the other council members watched as the masked westerner enter the room. He placed his hand over his heart as he gave a slight bow to everyone. Sarutobi was slightly amazed at the young man's formal jester. Nearly a complete opposite of the brash little boy who would barge in on him during important meetings or business.

"It's an honor and privilege to be standing among the elite warriors of Konoha."

"The feeling is mutual Vulpes Incluta." Sarutobi said, "And congratulations on advancing onto the third phase of the exams."

"Thank you Hokage. Where would you like to begin?"

"If I may interject Hokage-sama," The man known as Hiashi spoke up, "What are we even going to discuss?"

Naruto perked up at what the Hyuga said. They didn't know why they are here? Ether the old man hadn't told them or someone else might have told them about the meeting. A smile formed on his face behind the fox mask. This might be a little more fun then he thought.

Sarutobi stroked his beard as everyone's gaze was directed at him. Waiting for what his next move would be. The old Hokage let out a sigh as he sat up straight in his chair. No point in trying salvage or continue this charade.

"Vulpes there's no point in hiding anymore. Take off your mask."

"As you wish."

Naruto brought up his hand up to his face. In one quick motion he pulled the fox mask off his face. He threw out his arms as a big shit eating grin was plastered onto his uncovered face.

"Guess whose back?"

If a pin were to drop inside the room everyone would be able to hear it. As soon as council members saw the whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks nearly every council member went silent as expressions of shock slowly grew on their faces. Only one other person had similar birthmarks and he was reported dead over a decade ago. Yet out of all the people present only one other person, besides Sarutobi, had kept their composure. Danzo sat in his seat looking at Naruto with his good eye as if the boy's presence didn't matter.

"…It appears that my Anbu reports were wrong. The demon brat is somehow still alive."

"Danzo!" The crippled warrior turned around to find the angry gaze of the Hokage staring down at him. "Naruto Uzumaki is my guest and I will not tolerate such disrespect towards him."

"Of course Hokage-sama, forgive my rudeness."

"Don't apologize to me Danzo, apologize to Uzumaki-san."

Danzo grunted, "Forgive me for my rudeness Uzumaki."

"It's alright, kind of expected something worse actually."

Sarutobi let out an audible noise as he cleared his throat. "Alright Naruto I've asked you to come here and to explain to me about your disappearance from Konoha nearly ten years. But with the unexpected appearance of my advisors and the shinobi clan heads, I would ask of you to explain your story to them as well."

"Of course, I'm sure you're all curious about the village pariah managed to survive all these years on his own. The one question I have is, where do you want me to start?"

"Start on the night you left the village."

"Well technically I was kicked out of the village but alright." Naruto took a deep breath, "Alright so I was running in the forest…"

 _(Naruto POV)_

 _Why did stuff like this have to happen to him? Wasn't it enough that those idiots not let me get food or clothes? No, they had to come with those sticks and just hit me on my birthday. Why didn't those nice people in masks come and stop those people like before? Well I didn't need their help anyway! I got myself out of there, but those stupid people blocked my way home._

 _I've never really been out in the forest before. Wow all these tress are so huge. If I were able to climb up any of them I could find my way back home. Maybe if it was daytime I could find my way back. I should thank the old man about showing me trick with the sun and directions when I get back. Maybe I should just find a nice tree and sleep off this whole mess-OWWW!_

 _Stupid branch on the ground making me fall. I think I got dirt in my cuts. I lifted myself up from the hard ground and back to my feet. I turned my head left and right to see a long pathway of dirt causing a gap between the tree line. It's a Road, thank kami. Now I just got to follow one it one way and I'll be in Konoha before I know it. And if it doesn't leave me home I'll probably meet someone who can point me in the right direction. I have a good feeling my luck is about to change._

 _"_ _Look what we have here boys. A little kid in the woods all by himself."_

 _I turned my head to see four men to my left standing in the middle of the road with a donkey hitched to one of those large metal cage wagons I see at those circuses that sometimes come to the village. Three of those guys had on those swords I've seen those mask people have. They were standing behind a man wearing a black kimono with a pencil thin mustache. How could I not notice them?_

 _The man in the kimono was looking down at me with a smile._

 _"_ _Hey kid are you lost?"_

 _"_ _Yeah…I was running so fast I kind of lost the way back home." Maybe these guys know where the village is. "Hey would any of you know where Konoha is?"_

 _"_ _Sure kid were actually heading that way. Why don't you hop in the back of our wagon and we'll take you there. You must be tired after running all this way out into the woods."The man turned to the others, "Osamu opened the wagon door and let this kid in. He's tired of running."_

 _"_ _Sure thing boss."_

 _I watched as one of the men with the swords walk over to the wagon and started fumbling with a lock. Wow this must really be a lucky day for me._

 _"_ _Thanks mister this is one of the nicest things anyone has done for me."_

 _I ran past the man with the moustache and towards the wagon. Maybe this is a sign that my luck is going to change. If these guys are being nice to me I wonder who else is going to be. I have a really good feeling about this. And I mean a really good feeling…_

"…And that was when I was taken to the Land of Monsoons and sold as a slave by those human traffickers. I think my former master's name was Gato or something, I don't really care about remembering those times."

The entire council sat as they hung onto every word Naruto told them. It was no wonder why the Anbu squads they sent to look for the boy came back with nothing. The Land of Monsoons was the hub of all human trafficking in all the elemental nations and finding a single young boy was nigh impossible. Yet that wouldn't be the only factor that would've made locating Naruto any easier. For the past couple of decades the daimyo's and the leader of the shinobi in the Land of Monsoons have been getting increasingly paranoid. They've restricted entrance to the country so much that unless visitors have legitimate business in their lands the policies was to simply kill the people on sight.

Sarutobi nodded his head as he took in all the information. "What happened after that Naruto?"

"After about a year or so in indentured servitude I made a break for it. I'd escaped, and to make an over complicated story short, came across these really old ruins in a cave. One of these buildings was a type of shrine that had a summing scroll."

"Yeah right kid all the summoning scrolls in the elemental nations are already in the hands of specific shinobi or in village archives." Tsume pointed out, "I hardly believe you just happened to stumble across one when you were a pup."

"Believe it or not it's the truth. Now back to the story, I don't know what possessed me to approach the scroll but I did and some of my blood accidently got on the scroll. I was transported to the summoning world where I would become the official summoner of the dragons." Naruto pound his fist against his chest as he let out a wide grin.

A moment of silence filled the room as each of the council members and Sarutobi just looked at the young blonde haired man with deadpan expressions. Naruto's confidence quickly deflated the longer the silence lingered. Looks like he would have to prove it to them. Naruto started to rummage through his back pouch.

"As much as I would like to believe that Uzumaki-san, that can't be true. The dragon scroll and its summoner is a simple folk tale. A story to entertain little children before they go to sleep." Said Hiashi as he rested his head against his hand, "Even if it was real the scroll has been lost for centuries."

"Then who do you explain this!?"

Naruto pulled out of his pouch the same scroll he found when he was a kid and presented it to everyone present. His smile returned when they all leaned forward in their seat to get a better look. Looks like they have no choice but to believe him now.

"Could just be a replica. I know this little shop in the capital that sells these fake shinobi scrolls to tourists." Inoichi spoke out

"Are you calling me a liar!?" Naruto shouted as he put the scroll back into his pouch.

"No, but the evidence is stacked against you." Danzo said

"Why you pompous ass-"

"Naruto there is no need to throw insults around." Sarutobi raised his voice and stopping Naruto before he could finished. "For the benefit of the doubt let's all agree you can summon dragons Uzumaki-san. What happened after that?"

Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest. "After the dragons made me their summoner they agreed to train me how to use chakra, fighting techniques, and took care of me till I was thirteen. But when I turned thirteen the dragons decided to send my back to our world and live with humans once again."

"And this is how you ended up with the western clan?" Sarutobi asked

"One, the 'western clans' as you call it are just known as 'the Imperium' to the people who live there." Naruto did the quotation mark motion when he saying the names. "Two, yes that's how I ended up in the lands to the west. The dragons hadn't been summoned to our world for at least four centuries and they didn't know any locations in the elemental nations by their modern names. So they decided to transport me to one of the two shrines dedicated to them that were still standing. And since one was under a mountain they chose to send me to the other one."

"Which was located in the western clans- I mean Imperium?" the slothful Shikaku said

"Correct, and once I learned I was nowhere near Konoha there was a dilemma. I had no money for a boat ride to get me back to Elemental Nations. That situation eventually lead me to stow away on a boat and being caught by the Frumentarii. When they found out I could use chakra they gave me a choice: either join the legion or be put to forced physical labor for the rest of my life." Naruto took a deep breath, "As you can see I picked the former."

"Frumentarii? Legion? What the hell are you talking about?" Tsume asked as she was trying to wrap her head around the words the young blond said.

"Time for a history lesson then. I'll give you the abridged version. Once upon a time ago the lands of the west were no different than the Elemental Nation until a single nation became so strong that they conquered every other nation in the west. Now there is only one nation, the Imperium, the empire of the eternal Sun." said Naruto, "Since their shinobi was no longer needed, no more use since there countries weren't fighting with each other, military officials organized them into three new forces: the Immunes, the Frumentarii, and the Praetorian Guard. The Immunes, which I'm a part of, are responsible for supporting the armies and hunting down dissidents and rebels. The Frumentarii are the secret police that not only keep order within the Imperium but also to find and train individuals adept at using chakra. And lastly the Praetorian Guard are the elite warriors responsible for protecting the imperial family, state officials, and even act as generals from time to time."

"Wouldn't you be punished for telling us state secrets Uzumaki?" Danzo asked, "I'm not sure how it's handled there, but here's it's the punishment is pretty severe."

"Common knowledge where I live." Naruto waved Danzo's comment off, "So that's what happened to me after I vanished from Konoha. Are there any questions? If not I have an appointment I need to get ready for tonight."

"Yes, if you weren't able to travel back to Konoha, why didn't you at least write to inform us you were alive?" Sarutobi asked

Naruto let out a sigh and facepalmed, "Well the reason for that is…"

* * *

(Akimichi's grill & bar)

After a stressful month of missions and chunin exams the jounin of Konoha finally had a chance to relax. In the back of the semi-busy restaurant sat four shinobi in an isolated booth with drinks in front of them. More specifically three jounin and one special jounin. On one side of the booth were two men, one wearing a mask covering his face and the other smoking a cigarette. On the opposite side of them were two women, one with striking red colored eyes with the other wearing a trench coat barely covering a mesh top.

The masked man was none other than Kakashi Hatake, or as he's better known as, _the Copy Cat Shinobi_. The man not only to predict anyone's movements but also able to learn any jutsu immediately just by looking at the hand signs used. A distinguished shinobi of the Third Shinobi War, student of the late _Savior of the Leaf_ , and son of Konoha's _White Fang_ were only a few titles he had received over the years. The man was single handedly one of the most feared and infamous shinobi an opponent could face. An earned reputation that would sometimes overshadow his own comrades.

Next to him sat Asuma Sarutobi, the third youngest child of the current Hokage. A former member of the Fire Guardians, a group of elite warriors entrusted to protect the daimyo of the land of fire, and the only Konoha shinobi to specialize in only wind jutsu. Though not as well known as his compatriot Kakashi, he was perfectly comfortable with his own reputation. The laid backed Asuma was an avid chain-smoker known to smoke up to at least ten cigarettes a day. A habit that downright infuriated his red eyed on-again-off-again girlfriend sitting across from him.

Kurenai Yuhi was single handedly one of the greatest genjutsu users in Konoha. Able to make illusions so real that enemy shinobi would die of shock from imaginary flames that simply didn't exist. But there was another reputation the genjutsu mistress was known for, being the number one ice queen of Konoha. If any man were to ask the reserved beauty on a date or even flirted with her they would be overwhelmed at the plethora of verbal insults that would cause them to cower away in fear. How Asuma managed to convince Kurenai to go on dates with him was beyond anyone's guess. Nearly the exact opposite of her best friend sitting right next to her.

Anko Mitarashi was known by a lot of different nicknames, most of them not meant for polite company. Being the former student of the greatest traitor the all of the village's history would do that to you. Yet despite the constant bad reputation she would get nobody could deny how skilled she was. The second best torturer and interrogator in Konoha and only behind Ibiki Morino, the man in charge of the entire T&I division. And unlike her best friend, Kurenai, the brash women was completely ok with men flirting with her and/or asking her out. Unfortunately if pissed off Anko to no end that most men were too intimidated by her to do anything with the only ones who weren't scared of her being only interested in bragging about how they 'conquered' the Snake Queen. At least she would be spending time with a handsome blond tonight.

"So you asked the guy who had been kicked out of the village to join you for drinks later." Kakashi asked

"Yup, think of it as my way of welcoming him back to his home village." Anko replied happily

"Did he even accept?"

"Well…no, but what man would pass up the chance to have drinks with a sexy woman like myself." Anko motioned to her entire body with a smile, "If he does pass up this chance. Then he's denser then I thought."

Kurenai shook her head at her friend/roommate antics. "Really Anko, have you become so desperate that you've decided to hit on barely legal younglings?"

"Oh your one to talk Nai-chan. Unlike you I don't have hordes of decent guys throwing themselves at me. Besides it's not like I'm going to have sex with him or anything." Anko tilted her head and cupped her chin as an idea popped in her head. "Well maybe if he's persistent…"

"Anko!"

"Ohh learn to take a joke Nai-chan."

Asuma toke another drag of his cigarette before blowing the bitter taste of tobacco smoke out of his mouth. "Your banters charming but you still haven't answered my question Anko."

"Umm what was your question again?"

"What do you think my dad is asking Naruto?"

Anko shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. I left when the Hokage dismissed me and Ibiki." She took a sip from her cup, "Probably just going to ask him where he's been all this time."

"Do you think the Hokage-sama is going to tell Naruto about _it_?"

The three other shinobi sitting in the booth immediately stopped what they were doing and all looked at Asuma. They all knew what the chain smoker was trying to say.

Almost eighteen years ago a great demonic fox by the name of _Kyubi_ _no Yoko_ attacked Konoha during the dead of night. In old legends the creature was known to be able to crush mountains or cause tsunamis by swinging only one of its nine tails. Yet on that night it didn't matter what the stories said. The demon rampaged through the village slaughtering the innocent civilians fleeing in terror and the shinobi guarding them. The Konoha shinobi attempted to launch an attack to defend their home, but the beast only cut them down as if they were mere flies. All was lost until one man single handedly swooped in and saved the day.

The fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was a shinobi without compare in Konoha. The man who defeated nearly a hundred Iwa shinobi single handedly to during the Third Shinobi war to protect innocent women and children. A Prodigy that pushed the boundaries of what seals could be used for, such as teleport people across far distances. Trained by one of the three legendary sages and the current wielder of the toad summoning scroll. But even with all these amazing abilities the Hokage had little chance of defeating the Kyubi.

You see a demon's physical body wasn't like that of a human or animal. Their bodies were made out of pure chakra that manifested into a psychical body. It was common knowledge that no technique or process can destroy chakra in its purist form. This basic fundamental law virtually made any demon immortal. But there was a loophole the Hokage Namikaze knew too well. Chakra couldn't be destroyed, but it could be transferred.

In a last ditched effort to stop the Kyubi from obliterating his village the fourth Hokage improvised a plan. To seal one of the greatest demons to have ever exist in a container. Sadly there was only one sealing technique that could perform such a feat, _The Shinigami death seal_. Yet the jutsu had a terrible price to the user. The last image of the fourth Hokage anyone saw was him riding on top of a giant toad facing down the Kyubi before a bright light engulfed the battlefield.

After the battle, the remaining Konoha shinobi that weren't injured rushed over to where the fourth was. When they arrived at the location all they found was the dead body of their former leader clutching a crying baby in his arms. It wasn't until the group of shinobi stood over the corpse they saw the strange looking seal upon the babies stomach.

Not to mention the fuzzy small patch of blonde hair on the babies hair and whisker like birthmarks on the child's cheeks.

"It's up to the Hokage to decide whether or not to tell Naruto." Kakashi said breaking the silence between the four. His fellow shinobi watched as he pulled out an orange colored book with a heart on the front cover. "Probably better for him to hear it from a grandfather figure then some random spiteful civilian."

Kurenai sneered at Kakashi when she saw the orange book. "Do you really have to read that smut it public Kakashi?"

"I got to catch up on my reading Kurenai. The next title of _Ichi Ichi_ is coming out in a few months." Kakashi turned the page without looking at Kurenai, "Besides how is it any different from the romance novels you read?"

"For starters my novels have at least a plot. Your book is just a compilation of random sex scenes."

"How do you know about what's in the book, hmmm Kurenai?" An outline of a smile formed underneath Kakashi's mask.

A small blush slowly spread across Kurenai's cheeks as she incoherently stumbled upon each word that came out of her mouth. Asuma took out his cigarette as he couldn't help but chuckle at the dark haired woman's attempt at trying to make sense of her own gibberish. Anko on the other hand erupted into full blown laughter at her friend's blabbering state.

"Looks like you've been busted Nai-chan!" Anko said in-between her laughs.

Kurenai managed to finally regain her sense of speech as she only pinched the bridged of her noise.

"How the hell did you three become my friends?"

* * *

(Unknown location in Konoha)

Orochimaru had always admired the Hokage monument.

Even as a little boy he had always enjoyed looking at the faces, only three during his youth but now four, that were carved into the side of the mountain that loomed over Konoha. Each face was a lasting legacy to the men who had lead his former home village to greatness. From the great unifier of the first Hokage who united the Senju, Uchiha, and Hyuga clans into a single group that would one day create Konoha. To the most recent Hokage who scarified his life so the village and its people could continue to exist. The seer endearment of these men's legacies would continue on long after living memory of them seized to relevant.

He couldn't wait for the day when those four faces crumbled beneath his foot.

The sound of someone's footsteps caught Orochimaru's attention. It didn't concern him one bit, but the noise did distract him from observing the monument in peace.

"Orochimaru-sama the council has finished their session with the westerner."

Orochimaru turned his head only slightly to get a good look at the person who addressed him. Kneeling on the floor was a young man with silver hair and glasses. Orochimaru smirked as he went back to looking at the Hokage monument.

"Rise Kabuto, Tell me did everything go as planned?"

"Yes my lord the shinobi council's reaction to the demon's presence went perfectly as planned." Kabuto said as he got up from the ground.

Orochimaru felt proud at how well his double agents did their job. Kabuto in particular was one of his agents who had quickly risen through the ranks. Found abandoned as a young child by another one of his agents Kabuto was brought up being taught to hate Konoha with every fiber of his being and to see Orochimaru as his merciful savior. When he was old enough Orochimaru had ordered Kabuto to become a shinobi/informant on Konoha activity. And no one had reason to expect the young man as a traitor. But if someone did manage to start figuring out about Kabuto, well he would have a good reason to put his medical expertise and vast knowledge of poisons to good use.

"Too think that the most powerful shinobi in Konoha could be fooled by a simple henge." Orochimaru gave a quick chuckle, "Also remind me to visit those sound genin later. I'm sure their _sensei_ would love to congratulate them on a job well done."

"Of course Orochimaru-sama. If I may ask what is the next phase of the plan?"

"Konoha will soon be a buzzed with the news of the Uzumaki's return. With everyone's attention focused elsewhere, it will give our forces a little extra space to move into position." Orochimaru turned around to look at Kabuto, "I need to travel to the land of wind to check on how the Kazekage's forces are coming along. Tell the other agents to start getting ready for the invasion. I also want you personally to keep an Eye on Sasuko Uchiha. I don't want my investment to be tarnished."

"Yes Orochimaru-sama, I will not fail you."

"I hope you don't Kabuto. I would hate for an agent of your skill to be _disposed_ of." Orochimaru gaze shifted back to the monument. "I swear by the end of the month the 'will of fire' will be extinguished by me."

* * *

 **You'd be surprised at how much family visits, school work, and being sick can disrupted your writing schedule. So I hope this extra long chapter gives you at least the idea of what happened to Naruto over the years. There still more to come and I don't want to show my complete hand just yet. I also still don't know if my usual updating schedule will be back to normal anytime soon but I try and do my best.**

 **Also I want to apologize about not doing the Rock Lee vs. Gaara fight. That is just a fight you have to see in its entirety to appreciate. My writing skills wouldn't have done it justice.**

 ***OPTIONAL BUT PLEASE READ***

 **It dawned on me that there are some things in my story that I won't be able to address in full detail and/or will just skim over. So I decided that I would include these points/ideas in a little list below. Now these points shouldn't have a major impact on the overall story. The purpose of this list is just to give some extra clarification for the world. And no major spoilers ahead. I can't stress that enough people.**

 **1\. No, Naruto is not OP as fuck so don't expect him to fight against someone of sannin or Hokage level power and win without help. If you're curious, his power and strength is about mid to high chunin.**

 **2\. The Elemental Nations and the Imperium are not close to each other. A real world comparison of distance would be the Balkan region in Europe to East Asia. So some ideas get lost in translation, one example is the people in the west not quite figuring out how to create kekkei genkai.**

 **3\. The technology of the Naruto series was always a bit confusing and never fully explained. In this story the technology is similar to that of the industrial revolution, more specifically the technology developed from the 1860's to the 1880's with some expectations.**

 **4\. There are guns in this universe but only civilians, sailors, and a few samurai clans use them. And the guns are only basic muskets, one-shot pistols, and 19** **th** **century cannons. Don't expect any shinobi to be carrying firearms.**

 **5\. And finally, Naruto is not** ** _the_** **Vulpes Incluta for those of you who know who I'm talking about.**

 **I hope this helps some of you with the context of the story.**

 **See all of you in the next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: the Training Begins

"Talking"

 **"** **Thought"**

 ** _Jutsu_**

 _Flashback_

Disclaimer: A fly pink hippopotamus took my burrito. Just wanted to know if anyone reads this.

* * *

(Konoha hot springs)

Naruto was fairly certain that some deity, spirit, or demon had it out for him. All he wanted to do was relax for his date tonight and explaining every little detail to the Hokage and shinobi council about what happened to him. But no, he had to try and stop an old man from peeping on the women's section of the hot springs. Tried being the key word here. Naruto sometimes cursed the dragon's teachings of standing up for one's moral integrity. Now here he was facedown against the wooden bridge over the flowing hot river of the springs as the old man he tried to stop was now sitting on top of a large orange toad.

Maneuvering his head, despite the stiff pain in his neck telling him not too, Naruto got a decent look at the old pervert on the toad. The fair skinned man had snow white hair that went down his entire back being held back by metal forehead protect with the symbol for toad painted on. He wore a dark green training gi with a red opened vest over the clothing as red geta sandals adoring his feet. Two red lines came up from his jaw line came up to his bored hazel eyes.

"I'll admit kid most people get knocked out when my pal here slams them to the ground. You must be tougher than you look."

Multiple high pitched screams erupted from behind the man. Turning around he saw a small group of women wearing only towels running away from the scene. A giant puff of smoke erupted from the toad as the man hopped off and jogged after the women. Naruto slowly picked himself up as he observed what was going on in front of him.

"Ladies no- please wait, there's no need to panic!" The man could only watch as the women run pass the building's corner. The man threw his arms up in the air that the women he'd been spying on were now gone. "Thanks a lot for interrupting my research brat. Do you know how long it's going to be-what the hell?"

He turned around to see Naruto standing back up to his feet, without his fox mask on. The spiky blonde hair tied with a red headband and blue eyes gave him a sense of déjà vu as it is. But those whisker-like markings stretched across the young man's cheeks brought back old bitter memories. There was no way that this brat could be _him_. The man started walking back to the Naruto with his narrowed eyes staring directly at the blonde.

 **"** **How could this get any worse?"** Naruto thought

Naruto fought against the feel of his sore body wanting to fall back down to the ground. The pain in his muscles was slowly fading away but his head was still throbbing. He brought up his hand to grasp his head, but once the hand touched his face Naruto's eye's shot opened. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his new mask lying on the ground right next to him. Naruto turned his head to see the old pervert walking towards him with a distinctive frown on his face. Stumbling over himself, the blonde frantically reached for his mask before finally putting it on.

"No point hiding brat, I saw your face clearly."

Naruto sighed but didn't take off his mask.

"Listen pal if you got a problem with me just know that-"

"What's your name?"

"Vulpes, Vulpes Incluta"

"Don't lie to me brat I've seen you before."

"You know if it wasn't for the fact that you put me right on my ass in only a few seconds I would've said fuck off. But I know better." Naruto pulled off his fox mask, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Former pariah of Konoha, shinobi of the Imperium, and overall smartass. Pleasure to meet ya mister?"

The man smiled as hopped onto one of the bridge poles and struck a pose with his right arm extended towards Naruto and his left reaching back towards the sky. Naruto only looked on in silent bewilderment at the scene happening before him.

"Well brat you stand in the presence of the great Jiraiya the legendary toad sage. The typhoon of the Amegakure, master of the toad summons, one of the legendary sages trained under the God of Shinobi, teacher to the Savior of the Leaf, successful author, and Konoha's glorious playboy."

The two shinobi silently looked at each other with Naruto trying to make sense at what just occurred in front of him.

"…If I still live in the Elemental Nations I would probably be impressed right now. But I don't anymore and frankly I could give less than two shits if you were the governor of Albion." Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Besides how does a little pervert like you even know about me?"

"First off kid, I'm not a little pervert, I'm a big one. And two, I was one of the people who was sent to look for you when you disappeared. Those reports saying you died were wrong then huh? So how did you survive?"

Jiraiya hopped off of the small post and landing in front of Naruto. The blonde crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Ohh no, I just got done explaining every little detail to the Hokage and the shinobi council. If you want answers go ask them." Naruto placed his mask back on his face and proceed to walk away from the old man. "Now excuse me but I want to get some relaxation before my training for the Chunin exams and my date tonight. So I bid you good day sir."

Jiraiya watched as the young man walk away from him. The boy may be a near physical carbon copy of his father but his attitude was a polar opposite. Though slamming the boy into the ground probably didn't help his opinion of Jiraiya. An idea popped into the toad sages head, perhaps he could help Naruto.

"Hey brat you're still in the Chunin exams right?"

"That's right" Naruto said without looking back or stopping.

"You going to push yourself in training?"

"That's the plan. Competition is pretty fierce."

"Yeah it usually it. Might even need some help preparing for the final part of the exams."

Naruto stopped when Jiraiya said that. He turned back around to the old man.

"What are you getting at pervert?"

"Simple, I'll train you for the next month so you can beat the other chunin competitors."

Naruto knew something wasn't right with this. One minute the old man had been pissed off at Naruto for stopping him from peeking on women. Now he was offering to train him all of a sudden. Naruto didn't know what this old pervert was planning but with that many titles he carried it was possible the man had great skills. That or this Jiraiya was just full of himself. Naruto decided to humor the man.

"What's the cost? A shinobi of your stature wouldn't waste time training someone for free."

"Think of it as my way for apologizing for not being able to find you all those years ago."

Naruto walked back to Jiraiya, "Okay even if I did agree to let you train me, how would I know you're any good. Just because you have that many title to your name doesn't mean you have the skill to back it up."

"Alright Naruto how about a little wager to settle your mind? If you manage to catch me in the next hour I'll leave you alone and let you train in peace. But if you don't catch me, you have to expect my offer to let me train you." Jiraiya extended his right arm to Naruto, "Do we have a deal?"

Naruto gaze went to Jiraiya's hand. After a moment of silence Naruto extended his own right arm and shook Jiraiya's hand.

"You got yourself a deal. When do we start?"

Jiraiya retracted his arm, "Now brat."

Naruto watched as one second Jiraiya was standing in front of him and the next he was gone. The blonde looked frantically all around him for the white haired man. To Naruto, Jiraiya had completely vanished.

"Hey kid, up here!"

Naruto turned around to find Jiraiya standing on the roof of the women's bathhouse. The man was looking down at him with a smug expression on his face. Naruto had no idea in hell how the man managed to get up there so fast. He couldn't even feel his presence till the voice called out to him.

"Are you just going to stand there like a pissant or are you going to catch me? Time ticking away Naruto."

Jiraiya jumped over the building's roof to god knows where to Naruto. He stood there for a moment before jumping on to the bathhouse roof and following right after.

 **"** **This is certainly going to be interesting."**

(Sometime later)

Naruto didn't know the time but he was sure the hour was almost up. Ever since he left the hot springs it had been a nonstop chase to catch Jiraiya. The pursuit led had led them from the the outskirts of Konoha to inside the village itself. Naruto could only guess what the villagers and shinobi they passed thought what was happening. Every time he got close to grabbing the man it was ether a clone that he caught, a smoke bomb used to distracted him, or just a plain dodged once he got close to him. It also didn't help that Jiraiya was standing on the opposite roof top as he was catching his breath.

"You know kid most people your level can't keep up with me for twenty minutes. How does it being the exception?"

Not saying anything back Naruto felt a renewed sense of strength surge through him. He leaped off of his building's roof and dashed towards Jiraiya. The old perverted watched as the blonde charge at him and not moving an inch. It wasn't until Naruto was only a few yards in front of him did Jiraiya stepped to the side, allowing the young man to miss. As Naruto was going passed him, Jiraiya grabbed the young man's shirt collar and tossed him against the wooden roof of another building.

As Naruto was picking himself up Jiraiya hopped off of the building he was on and down to the streets. Many of the villagers, who had been watching the scuffle between the two shinobi, observed the older man walk through the streets. Jiraiya approached one of the small vendor stalls with a decently dressed man standing behind it.

"Excuse me sir but do you have the time?"

"Oh y-yes," The man pulled out a steal cased pocket watch out of his kimono and handed the small clock to Jiraiya. "It's 4:36 mister."

"You don't mind if I borrow your watch do you?"

"No sir go ahead." The vendor handed his watch over to Jiraiya, "By the way what your name-"

"That's it you old pervert!"

Jiraiya turned around and looked up to see Naruto standing back up.

"Hey brat you only got about ten minutes left till the time limits up. How about you give up now and just let me train you?"

"Well that's one thing about me." Naruto slight crouched down and brought his hands to together, "I never back down from a deal or promise until it's completely fulfilled!"

 ** _Kaioken_**

Jiraiya and the villagers watched as a red aura engulfed Naruto's body. When the villagers saw this they scattered off of the streets and into the buildings to avoid whatever was about to begin between the two shinobi. Jiraiya on the other hand didn't run away but looked on in amazement at the sight before him. He knew Naruto had the Kyubi sealed inside him and along with the demons distinctive red chakra. Yet this aura felt different; there was no feeling of evil intent coming from Naruto.

Jiraiya didn't had long to dwell on this as Naruto shot forward at an even greater speed then before. He barely managed to dodge when Naruto appeared in front of him. Jiraiya jumped back to the roofs and proceeded to jump across the building tops. Once he saw Jiraiya fleeing Naruto quickly composed himself and followed pursed right after the man.

"You're not getting away that easy!"

The two figures, one with white hair and the other encased in a red aura, raced a crossed the rooftops of Konoha. Villagers and even shinobi took notice of the chase. Naruto vanished from sight and reappearing close to Jiraiya ready to grab him, only to be deflected seconds later by the toad sage. The two shinobi kept doing this routine over the buildings of Konoha.

Jiraiya was legitimately impressed with the young man's skills. It had been a while since someone of Naruto's age and rank being able to keep up with him for a decent period of time. The technique Naruto was using also intrigued Jiraiya. The boy's speed alone had nearly doubled, he could only guess what other of the blondes abilities had increased. Perhaps the brat would be an interesting pupil. But right now he was getting tired of this song and dance.

Naruto knew in his gut the hour was almost up. He believed his Kaioken would've been enough to catch Jiraiya off guard immediately and win their wager. But now his technique was at its limit, he had to end this now.

Naruto drawing all of his enhanced strength charged dead on at Jiraiya. Yet instead of getting ready to dodge again, Jiraiya put of his guard. But when Naruto got only a few feet away from Jiraiya, the red aura that coated him vanished. His body became heavier as the sensation of soreness slowly overcame his muscles. Naruto stumbled in his step right before he collided with Jiraiya.

Seeing the boy's strange red glow disappear Jiraiya jumped in the air and letting Naruto pass right under him, who was looking up in concern. In one fluid motion the toad sage swung his leg and smashing his shin against the blondes head. Naruto went flying across the rooftops, breaking clay tiles or wood planks roofs of the buildings.

Jiraiya landed back to his feet as he watched the fallen Naruto groaning in the distance. He pulled out the small watch from the vender out of his pocket to check the time. The two hands of the watch read 4:50.

"Alright brat the hour's up, I won. Should we talk about our arrangement now or do you still want to try and catch me?" Jiraiya proceeded to walk towards the westerner.

Naruto let out another groan as he struggled to pick himself up. "No, you won, I'll let you train me."

Jiraiya crouched over Naruto, "You sure kid? It seemed like you were pretty persistent about not being my student?"

"I made a deal and I'll honor it. That doesn't mean I have to enjoy training under a little pervert."

"Big pervert brat, get it right." Jiraiya examined Naruto's body, "Do you want me to take you to a hospital kid?"

"No, just let me lie down here for awhile."

"Alright kid, report back at the hot springs tomorrow morning for your training." Jiraiya begun to walk away from Naruto, "Try and get some rest kid because tomorrow your ass is mine."

"Whatever pervy sage…"

* * *

(Konoha mountain range)

 **"** **So I'm going to be training here for the next month? Hmm not much of an improvement over the other training grounds."**

Sasuko looked around her at the minimalistic training ground/home of her sensei. A medium sized pond with small patches of reeds on the banks was at the far edge of the flat area of rocks. Three thick training posts stood opposite of the plain one-story wooden house of Kakashi. For the next month this place would be her new home till the third phase of the chunin exams. She might as well get use to it.

When she regained consciousness at the hospital it wasn't long for Kakashi to arrive to check on her condition. He'd informed her that she advanced to the third and final phase of the exams, with it being another tournament. Sasuko had no idea why Kakashi became tenser when he told her that she would be fighting that red haired genin from Sunagakure in the tournament though. But whoever won that match would move on to next round to fight ether Neji Hyuga or that blonde westerner Vuples.

Sasuko knew enough about the blonde to know that he is dangerous. Back in the Forest of Death, after she and Sai recovered from the attack from the grass shinobi, Sakura told her what happened while they were unconscious. Apparently after that spandex wearing Rock Lee failed to stop the sound shinobi from trying to kill the weakened team seven Vulpes came in and managed to drive them off. Sasuko didn't know what to expect if she did have to fight him, or even Neji for that matter, but see was going to win. And the first step is training with Kakashi.

The mountains of Konoha were one of the few places in the village where shinobi could cut loose with their training. A place that allowed shinobi to practice and or learn new high ranking jutsus or techniques that would cause massive collateral damage if done near the village itself. Why Kakashi chose to live here, Sasuko would probably never know. Yet if her sensei decided that she would stay and train here, then that must've meant he would have to have special plans ready for her.

"Alright Sasuko-chan here are the weights."

Walking out of the house was Kakashi carrying two sets of leg weights on his shoulders.

Sasuko turned her head and raised an eyebrow, "What are those for?"

"These are going to help you with your speed and endurance." Kakashi dropped the weights at Sasuko's feet, "Since you copied the fighting style of the eight gates technique from Lee you need to start training to prepare your body for the stress. There's only thirty pounds in each weight. No need to recklessly push yourself after getting out of the hospital. Well not yet anyway."

"I can do more."

"Yes you can, but you're not at hundred percent right now."

Sasuko, not feeling like arguing with Kakashi right now, kneeled down and begun wrapping the weights around her legs. After the final strap of the twenty-five pound weights were set she stood back up. The new found weight on her leg felt odd and was slightly throwing off her balance. It didn't matter to Sasuko though. If this slight discomfort was meant to make her stronger then she would adapt and endure.

"Alright Sasuko I want you to run fifteen laps up and down the trail leading to Konoha. When you're done, come back and I'll tell you what to do next. Now excuse me, I still need to get your room ready."

Sasuko nodded as she started jogging away from her sensei and her new home for the next month. She wondered what new technique Kakashi would teach her. Ever since graduating from the academy the Cyclops had mostly focused on honing her and her teammate's chakra control and basic team working skills. No new jutsus or fighting styles, just the same principles she and every other shinobi learned in the academy. For some who apparently knows more than a thousand jutsus Kakashi sure didn't like to show it.

Yet now it was going to change. With the competitors she would be facing her sensei would have little choice but to teach her new tricks. Now coupled with her now awaken Sharingan, the first female Uchiha since the first great shinobi war to do so, Sasuko was one step closer to achieving the first step of her goal. She was going to avenge her massacred clan one day and bring the traitor to justice.

And no one, ally or enemy, would get in the way in the goal of killing her ex-brother.

* * *

(Hokage office, sunset)

"The brat actually did that?"

"Yeah, I thought Danzo was going to order the Anbu to seize and arrest him."

Jiraiya was starting to like the kid more and more. After he left Naruto to his own devises, and going back to the hot springs to resume his research for a short time, he went to confront his old sensei. Sarutobi wasn't hard to find, he was in his office in the Hokage Tower, and Jiraiya had couldn't come at a better time. Apparently his sensei, his sensei's advisors, and the shinobi council had just came back from having an audience with Naruto with the young man explaining nearly every little detail about what happened with him. He guessed that Naruto was telling him the truth. Now the two men were sitting on a bench on one of the balconies of the Hokage Tower watching the sunset.

Jiraiya had just been listening to Sarutobi tell him what Naruto had explained to his sensei. And just listening to what the kid went through since he was kicked out of the village his apprentice saved. He was just happy that now Naruto was generally safe, given his occupation of course.

"Are any of them going to be a problem?"

"I don't know, but I'll do my best to keep them off his and his team's back. I already got enough stress with an emissary from the lands to the west coming at the end of the month to observe the chunin exams."

"Can I ask what are they going to discuss with you, or is it classified?"

"To be honest, I have no clue." Sarutobi pulled out his tobacco pipe and a small pouch filled with dried leafs of the plant. "I didn't even know they would be participating or sending someone over till a few months before the exams. Also I need to ask, are you sure you want to train the boy? It's a big risk with Orochimaru running around."

Putting the final pitch of tobacco in his pipe Sarutobi took out a matchstick and lit it against the wood bench. Jiraiya kept looking at the setting sun as a feint trail of smoke flowed up from the Hokage's pipe.

"I still plan on continuing my search for Orochimaru. But I can't let the kid train by himself. Training him is the least I could do after failing him and his father."

"You're not the only who failed him Jiraiya. Everyone in this village did too, including me." Sarutobi pulled to pipe out of his mouth and blew a stream of smoke out, "I also don't want you telling him about his parentage just yet. I want to discuss that with the western emissary in private."

"Don't want to give that inheritance to potential enemy huh?"

"Yeah…"

Sarutobi put the pipe back in his mouth as the two old men sat in silence. The sun sunk slowly over the horizon as the faded orange sky started giving way to the night sky. A few stars had already begun to shine against the darkening sky. Across the village below street lights and building began to light up as people closed down shops, proceeded to walk home, or the night owls heading out to enjoy a good time. The entire atmosphere around them was of the upmost serene and peaceful feeling ether one of them has felt for in a while.

And Jiraiya knew what he was about to say next would most likely ruin the feeling.

"Should I tell him about the Kyubi then? He deserves to know about the demon at least."

"No need, Naruto already knows about the demon sealed within him."

"So you told him."

"No, he already knew about the demon." Sarutobi let out another puff of smoke, "I was going to tell him myself but he told me the dragons had already informed him of the demon's presence years ago. Naruto even said that if he focuses or dreams the Kyubi would sometimes try to communicate with him. I can't help but wonder if the seal is weakening."

"I still can hardly believe the boy found the dragon summoning contract. Guess I can't have him sign the toad contract then. And don't worry sensei I'll check the seal to see if it's still intact."

"You'd be doing me a favor if you did. Now about that incident at the hot springs…"

"Hey the brat interrupted my research."

"…And the chase throughout Konoha?"

"Well I needed a way to test his abilities and to train him."

The silence returned between the two shinobi, but only for a moment.

"So when can I expect my next copy of _Icha Icha_ Jiraiya?"

"You wait like everyone else old man."

* * *

(Rooster & Kitten, nighttime)

Naruto had no idea what to make of the bar. Above the entrance to the building was a sign with images of a rooster and cat next to each other being illuminated by a few light bulbs. Inside the bar he could that a few people were already inside socializing. He didn't see any shinobi inside, but he could sense that a small number were inside. He'd hope that this encounter would go better than his earlier one.

After his little chase with Jiraiya, Naruto went straight back to the hot springs to finally relax. He left the hot springs after a few hours, and since it was still early, Naruto decided to wander around Konoha. The village itself hadn't change much since he left, same wooden buildings and dirt roads, with the only different being there were much more wires and lights around then he remembered. Yet the biggest difference was that the people he passed didn't look at him with disgust and probably shock. But that was attributed to his new mask. He went sight seeking for hours, revisiting old places of his childhood, till he noticed the setting sun had almost disappeared over the horizon. Naruto felt like that was enough sightseeing and started making his way to the Rooster and Kitten.

 **"** **No reason to keep waiting."**

Naruto stopped looking at the sign and walked into the bar. The interior of the bar wasn't that unique. Basic wooden tables and chairs were scattered about with a few private booths in the back of the room. The people who were present were in small groups talking with each other or by themselves drinking alone. Naruto had been in a few bars before this, some high class ones and some pretty poor ones, but this one has a homier feel to it than the others. Now all that was left is to find Anko.

"Hey Vulpes, over here!"

Naruto's looked to see in one of the private booths was Anko waving her hand towards him with a smile on her face. But he noticed that across from her sat two more shinobi, one man and another woman, were both looking at him as well. Naruto instantly recognize the two jounin from the preliminary matches. Kurenai and Asuma if he remembered correctly. Naruto walked over to the booth and took the open seat next to Anko.

Anko slapped Naruto on the back, "Pleasure to see you here Vuples-kun." She pointed at Kurenai. "See Nai-chan I told you he'd show up."

Kurenai rolled her eyes. "Alright Anko you win, he showed up." She shifted her gaze at Naruto, "Actually I wanted to thank you for stepping in and saving Hinata. She's in the hospital recovering now. If you hadn't stopped her cousin, I don't want to think what would've happened."

"I think we all knew what would've happened." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "I should say sorry too. I didn't mean to beat up dog boy that bad."

"Don't be, losing that might be a good thing for him. Maybe his arrogance will finally disappear and start taking his training more seriously now." Kurenai said, "Besides he destroyed your old mask, he's the one that should be apologizing to you."

"No it's my fault. I wasn't taking him seriously and I paid for it-"

"Alright that's enough for the guilt fest you two." Anko interrupted Naruto, "We're here to enjoy ourselves, so both of you, get the sticks out of your asses and have fun. Hey Uncle getting something strong for my new friend here!"

The old scruffy man behind the bar nodded his head at the shouting Anko and started fumbling around with some of the bottles behind him. While all of this was going on Asuma was paying attention to the fox mask on Naruto's face. He had seen it before in his father's study a number of times.

"Hey kid did my dad give you that mask?"

"If your dad is the Hokage then yes. He gave it as an apology gift for my old mask getting destroyed."

Asuma pulled out a cigarette and his lighter, "That mask meant a lot to him. He kept it as a reminder and memorial to you."

Naruto was dumbfounded at Asuma's words. "R-really I didn't know that." His mind went back to the words he said earlier about the fox mask. **"I feel like a complete asshole right now."**

"Alright order up!"

Naruto was taken out of his thoughts as the bartender appeared at their table and set a glass of brown liquid in front of him. The blonde watched as the grey haired man limp away from the group and back to his other customers. Yet his mind went back to the Hokage and the mask.

Over the years he just assumed that it was the old man's job to look after him, for whatever he had, while putting on an act to disguise how much he hated him. But with what Asuma just told him, Naruto was having second thoughts now.

 **"** **Maybe I meant more to him then I thought. I should go talk to him about-"**

"Hey Foxy-kun you alright?"

Naruto was pulled out of his inner monologue by Anko elbowing him in the shoulder.

"Yeah I'm fine- wait what did you call me?"

"Don't mind her, she give nicknames to every new person she meets." Kurenai took a drink from her glass, "Once she picks a nickname for you it sticks."

"Aww you know me so well Nai-chan! Now Foxy-kun tell me, what did those asshole councilors say to you?"

"Ohh you know stuff that asshole's say. I'm lucky they have no jurisdiction over me or I would've probably been arrested. Some people just can't handle criticism."

"What do you mean by 'no jurisdiction?'" Asuma asked

"Exactly what it means. They don't have any authority over me." Naruto leaned back into his seat, "I'm neither a shinobi, citizen, resident, or whatever else of Konoha. And on top of that I'm a foreign shinobi. To put simply, they can't do anything to me without causing an incident."

The three other shinobi at the booth were all silent. This young man had virtually gotten away with insulting the village council members. They didn't know how lucky he is, but it must be pretty up there.

"Damn Foxy-kun I didn't think you would earn my respect that easy." Anko swooned as she pressed herself against Naruto's side. "Now all you have to do to win my heart is hunting down this one bastard-"

"Anko stop trying to seduce the boy. I knew I made the right choice of coming with you so you wouldn't pull anything."

Naruto didn't know what to make about what was happening right now. He watched as the two women bickered with one another as the man chuckled himself at the scene. Some of the other bar patrons glanced over them at them for a moment before going back to their own business. Naruto could only guess what they were thinking this group of shinobi. His eyes shifted to the to the glass of alcohol sitting right in front of him.

If the rest of the night was going to be like this then he really would need a drink.

* * *

 **I've adopted a new updating policy, I update when I update.**

 **I also wanted to inform you all that I'm going to take a break from updating this story for a bit. It's not going to be a long hiatus, only about month. Expect the next chapter of** ** _Ancient Fury_** **to come out sometime in August. In the meantime, I'll be fixing some of my other stories I have up on the site and I'll be post a new DBZ story between now and next month. So keep an eye out for that.**

 **So until next time my readers.**

 **See you all in the chapter.**


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Gonna Need A Montage

"Talking"

 **"** **Thought"**

 ** _Jutsu_**

 _Flashback_

Disclaimer: I'm back b***…and I still don't own any of the Naruto.

* * *

(Outskirts of Konoha)

Naruto relaxed against the rivers shore as he enjoyed the heat coming from the sun. The serenading sounds of the waterfall, river, and the light breeze gently shaking the nearby trees only added to the atmosphere of the area. He decided to enjoy the moment of tranquility as much as he could. The old pervert had sent him here earlier while he stayed back at the hot springs to do more of his 'research.' And if Naruto was correct, the sun's position in the sky told him that it had been well over two hours already. There was only so many times Naruto could stretch and warm-up before he got bored.

As he laid there on the ground Naruto's thoughts went back to the surprising wonderful time he had last night. Spending time with the three jounin was quiet enjoyable. They all swapped stories, told him about their likes, and he even got a chance to show off his skills with a guitar. It was completely worth getting chewed out by Blackwall for showing up to the hotel room well past midnight. Naruto was glad his advance healing factor could negate the effects of all that alcohol he drank last night or else he would've had one of those hangovers everyone else complained about. One of the few positive traits he inherited from having the Kyuubi sealed inside of him.

Naruto winched at the mere thought of that demon's name. He was fully aware that the Kyuubi was sealed inside him and just waiting break free. The dragons told him shortly after his twelfth birthday after he started experiencing nightmares involving a giant red fox in the sewers. When they told him, Naruto didn't know how or what to feel. He was angry, sad, relieved, along with a whole lot of other emotions at finally knowing the reason why he was deemed a pariah as a kid and the evil presence the dragons kept telling him about. At least it was comforting to know where the source of the majority his problems came from.

Nowadays Naruto reaped whatever beneficial side effects the Kyuubi cause while inside him. Mainly a massive chakra pool and healing factor were among his favorite. And ever since he learned to mentally block the Kyuubi, who tried to influence his mind through dreams or sublime whispers in his ears, he could rest easier knowing that the demon had no immediate control over him. Unless he lost complete self-control over himself that is. But with the last incident happening years ago Naruto could focus on his training and the oath he made while training with the dragons. He was going to protect those who needed his help and punish those who take advantage or abuse the weak. All he had to do now was get stronger so he could start living up to that oath.

"Alright brat you ready for training!?"

Naruto was taken out of his thoughts at a familiar voice calling out to him. He turned his head to see Jiraiya walking towards him carrying an umbrella in one hand and a small rolled up rug in the other. Naruto got up from the river's shore and gave a quick stretch to his muscles.

"You done peeping at women pervy-sage? Or is this going to be a regular thing this month?"

"Don't worry about that kid. I forgot that only old people visit the hot springs in the morning. Not much too work with there."

"With how much of a little pervert you are I'm surprised you'd say that."

Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders. "I've tried adding older women to my books awhile back but they never quiet sold as well as my other titles. Younger women, age or appearance, just sell better than older women." Jiraiya smirked at Naruto with a glimmer in his eye. "But that doesn't really apply to you huh brat? I have to say I'm impressed that you managed to catch the 'snake mistresses' eye."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya with a surprised look on his face.

"How did you even…by Kami pervy-sage did you spy on me?!"

"No kid, I didn't. I heard some shinobi talking how Anko and some other jounin having drinks with some blond guy wearing a fox mask last night. And you're the only blond guy I know that wears a fox mask. So how was it?"

"Nothing happened pervy-sage. And I'm not going into this."

"Alright kid I won't ask. But I will tell you this," Jiraiya got right in Naruto's face with a stern look in his eyes. "Don't hurt her kid. She been through enough shit in her life."

Naruto slowly stepped back with his hands raised in defense.

"Calm down old man, there's no reason to get all defensive about this. Besides I don't think it's gonna get any more serious than last night. Shit I'm going to be leaving at the end of the exams and not returning to the Elemental Nations in general for a long time. And that's not even mention the rules against fraternization…"

Jiraiya stopped listening to the young man ramble on about whatever he was going off on. The old sage could only hazard a guess at the motives of the purple haired kunoichi towards the blonde. Though he didn't visit Konoha very often, managing his spy network usually had him traveling a lot, Jiraiya kept tabs on the shinobi who would watch after Naruto when he was younger. He did it in case of when something happened to the boy he would know who to blame for not keeping an eye on him. But Anko's name almost always showed up on his tabs with the word _volunteer_ right next to it.

Maybe it was the fact that both individuals were labeled as pariahs by outside forces they couldn't control and Anko saw possible kinship from Naruto. She was the former student of Orochimaru and him the container of the nine tailed fox. The two shared the same experiences of abuse by the village and could understand each other's past troubles. Maybe there was something there was something there between the two shinobi that he just couldn't see or figure out.

Either that or he was reading way to deep into it and the kunoichi just wanted to screw around, both literally and figuratively.

"…with a kami-damn spoon!"

Jiraiya's thoughts were interrupted by Naruto's yelling.

"Hmm what was that brat?"

"You weren't even listening?!"

"I was going over your training in my head kid." Jiraiya lied intentionally. No reason to lecture Naruto on any possible relation with Anko. "So enough about your lovers' quarrel, let's get down to business."

Naruto stammered incoherently for a moment before slumping his shoulders and letting out a sigh.

"Alright, whatever, let's start our training…master."

Jiraiya smirked, "That's more like it brat."

He sets down the rug and umbrella off to the side.

"Alright kid I went to the Hokage's office to ask who you'll be facing in the tournament. Way to go with getting Neji Hyuga as your first match."

"I was hoping to fight him actually."

"Okay…after our little chase through Konoha I got a good idea where to start our training. I'm going to be blunt, you charge in too damn much without any thought. I lost count how many times you left yourself opened. If I was your enemy you'd be dead. And don't think Neji will take it easy on you. So the first part of our training will involve you learning how to properly defend yourself."

Naruto nodded in agreement. He could agree that he left himself opened more times then he actually should. But that was one of the things that were drilled into him back in basic training in the Imperium. Use defense as minimal as possible and put everything into overpowering your opponent. Even the dragons focused more on teaching him how to counter attack then putting up a defense to absorb blows.

"Yeah I actually should improve my defensive skills. So what else will my training consist off?"

"You're going to like this next part brat." Naruto perked up at what Jiraiya said, "I going to teach you an s-rank technique that was developed by the second Hokage. I'm going to teach you how to make shadow clones. Believe me when I tell you that-"

"Clones? How would learning a new clone technique help me fight Neji or anyone for that matter? No thanks, my mirage clones are good enough for me."

"Mirage clone?" Jiraiya ponder to himself for a moment before snapping his finger in realization. "Let me guess those mirage clones of yours can't really take any sort of hit without dissipating immediately right?"

"Well yeah that's what clones do."

Jiraiya smiled as he waved his finger, "Now that's where you're wrong. A shadow clone is different from every other clone out there. They're a lot more durable so only a lethal attack can dissipate them. The user can also store chakra in the clones so that they could even perform any basic to high level jutsu. And that's not even mentioning when a shadow clone dissipates the user gains all the clones' experiences and memories. Pretty handy when it comes to training and reconnaissance."

Naruto was surprised that a clone technique, the most basic jutsu that could be thought to any shinobi, was capable of doing so much. Maybe having this pervert as his temporary teacher would be a good thing after all.

"Wow pervy-sage I'd never expect you to teach me something like that-"

"I'm not done kid." Jiraiya stopped Naruto from continuing, "This jutsu isn't an s-rank technique for nothing. The chakra requirements alone are too much for any genin and even some chunin. But that's not the worst of it."

Jiraiya closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.

"There's no filter to distinguish positive and negative experiences gathered by the clone. So if one of them gets stabbed or a jutsu is used on them all that pain gets sent back to the user. It can to a point where it can fatal too. There was once this shinobi I was on a mission with where he used a shadow clone. But once that clone was hit by a powerful lighting jutsu the guy just slumped over dead right then and there. Nothing physically happened to him, his heart just stop like he was the one who was electrocuted. That's the danger of the shadow clone jutsu; an undisciplined mind just can't handle that much pain or shock."

The duo stood in silence as Naruto soaked in all the information about the shadow clone jutsu. There was probably no doubt he could learn how to deal with the telling apart which memories were his and those that weren't. Heck he'd learned how to block a powerful demon from influencing his thoughts along with some uncomfortable nightmares he had to deal with once in a while. If he could do those things then he could handle a little bit of 'advance' clone training.

"Pervy-sage I gonna assume that you're going to teach me how to train my mind right?"

"Of course kid why kind of master would I be if I didn't?"

"Alright pervy-sage let's get started-"

"One more thing Naruto. I was told by the Hokage yesterday that you had a summoning contract with you."

Naruto let out an audible frustrated groan.

"What are you going to give me flak about that too?"

"Nah I'm curious to see if it's true. If it is, well I can really let you sign my toad contract can I?" Jiraiya let out a small chuckle.

Naruto nodded as he slowly walked away from the old pervert to get some room for the summoning. Finally someone at least gave him the benefit of the doubt that he could summon dragons. Unlike those council assholes that believed he was only bluffing. But now Naruto had a chance to prove it and he exactly knew who to summon.

Naruto stopped walking when there was a considerable amount of distance between him and Jiraiya. He brought up his right hand to his mouth and bit down on his thumb, drawing a small amount of blood from the fresh cut. He spread the small dabs of blood across his other fingertips till each finger was coated in the crimson liquid. And without any warning, Naruto slammed his blood coated hand against the sandy shore. In only a brief second small symbols came out from under his hand and formed into a small circular pattern before a white smoke cloud erupted from the ground.

Jiraiya watched as the smoke cloud engulfed his new student. The size of the white cloud indicated that the creature Naruto summoned would be relatively smaller in size. After years of summoning toads and watching other shinobi summon creatures he could tell the size of creature that would be summoned by simply looking how big the smoke cloud was. But as Jiraiya was occupied by his own thought, two silhouetted figures emerge from the smoke cloud. One human while the others was more appeared more bestial.

Out of the smoke crawled a large lizard-like creature with scales blacker then any night sky. Covering the creatures back was a dark blue vest with slits cut into the side so that a pair of black bat wings could extend out to their fullest length. Five claws on each of the creature's four feet bore into the sand. Emerald colored eyes glared at Jiraiya with white razor sharp teeth sneering at him. And on top of the creature was Naruto with a smug grin plastered on his face with his arms crossed.

"See I told you I could summon dragons! So you can tell those council members to shove their accusations right up their-"

"Is this guy giving you trouble Naruto?"

"No Brother, he's actually my new teacher-AHHHH!"

Before Naruto could finish, the dragon bucked off the blonde shinobi and shifted his focused towards his summoner.

"Damn it Naruto. You know the Boss doesn't like it when you summoning us just for showing off."

Naruto sat back up while rubbing his head.

"I needed to prove to at least one person that I could summon dragons. I've been getting shit from people ever since I told them I had your guy's contract."

"That's no excuse!"

"Hum excuse me but I believe introductions are in order."

Naruto and Brother seized their bickering as both turned to a confused Jiraiya.

"My name is Brother and I'm Naruto's familiar. Now who are you?"

"I'm Jiraiya the Toad Sage, current holder of the toad contract and new mentor to Naruto." Jiraiya gave a small bow to Brother. "I'll be honest, I've never really heard the term familiar before or heard a summing creatures name like yours before."

Brother nodded his head, "You humans have difficulty pronouncing dragon names so we give ourselves titles to make it easier for your people. As for familiar, when a new person signs the dragon contract and passes the test they are given a hatchling to help with mastering the dragons jutsus and sage training."

"Interesting I've never heard of summoning contract doing this. Also quick question Brother. Is Naruto usually like this?"

"Unfortunately yes Jiraiya-sama."

"And what is that suppose to mean?!" Naruto shouted

"Exactly what you think it means."

"Real mature there you overgrown gecko!"

"Looks who's talking Mr. I-Blow-A-Third-of-My-Pay-on Noodles!"

As the two went back to arguing Jiraiya went back to his own thoughts again. So his new student was the holder of the legendary dragon contract. Though Jiraiya was somewhat disappointed that he wouldn't be able to pass down the toad contract to a new student of his. He was proud that the teen was in possession of one of the most legendary contracts to ever exist. It was unfortunate that the law of summoning contracts forbid any shinobi or kunoichi to have more than one contract.

The laws of summoning contracts, an unspoken set of rules discussed between all the summoning creatures, stated that a shinobi and/or Kunoichi could only sign one contract and one contract only. This rule was to make sure that no one shinobi could become too powerful, regardless of intentions. Special jutsus, martial art moves, sage mode, the list of potential techniques that could be abused by the wrong person went on and on. It also made sure that some groups of summoning creatures wouldn't be forced to work with another group against their will.

A small smile formed on Jiraiya's lips. From the few things he heard about Naruto, most of which came from the Hokage's mouth, he was fairly certain he didn't have to worry that with the young man seriously abusing any jutsus or techniques. Saving the Hyuga Heiress from a killing blow and vowing to avenge her aggressor, honoring a deal no matter how much he disliked it, and not bragging about a night he had with a wonderful woman. Jiraiya couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at Naruto's actions. He sounded like one of his cliche hero protagonists he wrote during his earlier literature works.

The next month was going to be quite enjoyable.

* * *

(Konoha Hospital)

When Sakura was little her parent always told her fairy tales about how a brave hero would save a princess from a monster and/or demon before she went to sleep. The thoughts of monsters and demons would always keep her up at night and would sometimes end up crying for her parents to make the creatures go away. But as she grew older those childish fantasies gave way to the dangerous world of the shinobi and kunoichi. After experiencing what happened in Wave Country Sakura realized there was a lot of sick twisted people out there that could out shine those fairy tale creatures.

But the red haired sand shinobi standing right across from her belonged in his own special category.

It had been roughly a week since the preliminaries concluded and Sakura didn't know what to do. She had hoped that she could help ether one of her teammates with their training. But Kakashi had taken Sasuko somewhere isolated to train while Sai went to wherever he goes when not with team seven. It also didn't help lessen the feeling of loneliness that all the other rookies, her closet friends, where all helping their own teammates prepare for the third phase of the exams. The only person she could really hang out with was Ino, but even the blond kunoichi had a part-time job at one of the Yamanaka's flower shops. It wasn't until one day, while browsing at the verity of floral decorations at her friends flower shop, that Sakura realized that there was one other person she could spend her time with.

Ever since the preliminaries Rock Lee had been in the hospital recovering from his match with the sand shinobi Gaara. Once she realizing this, Sakura immediately decided she would visit the energetic fighter. After buying a small bouquet of flowers as a get well gift, and ignoring the teasing from Ino, she went on her way to the hospital.

When she arrived at the hospital Sakura was greeted by a familiar face. Shikamaru was in the hospital as well, but he wasn't the one getting treatment. Apparently Choji, after their morning training regiment, had eaten some rotten meat when they went out for lunch. To make a long story short, Shikamaru took his friend to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. After telling him that she was going to go visit Lee the lazy Nara decided he would join her, reasoning how boring it was waiting around doing nothing.

Sakura would forever be in Shikamaru's debt now. If he hadn't joined her then there would've been no doubt that she would've been killed by Gaara along with Lee. She hadn't even sensed his presence till Shikamaru had already captured the intruder with his shadow imitation jutsu. But sweat was dripping down his forehead, the constant twitching of his entire body, and Gaara being able to slightly move his body told Sakura that Shikamaru wouldn't be able to hold the red head for much longer. It also didn't help that unconscious body of Rock Lee was encased in sand and one wrong move could result in all three ending up dead.

 **"** **Okay Sakura you got to think here."** Sakura thought to herself as she stared into Gaara's blank emotionless eyes. **"I can't go and get help, when Gaara breaks free Shikamaru and Lee are going to die by the time I get back. I don't have the physical strength to break his sand armor and I don't have my kunai to cut through it. Jutsus are out of the question, too many civilians around. How am I-"**

Sakura's eyes widen as another thought flashed through her mind. She didn't have the power or strength of her teammates and sensei, but she was the most socially adept out of all of them.

"What's the point of this Gaara?"

Gaara shifted his gaze to Sakura.

"I need to finish what I started."

"But you beat him already and advanced to the third phase of the exams. What's the point?"

"He still has his blood. We _need_ it."

 **"** **Okay just going to ignore that."** Sakura thought, "Haven't you forgotten about the rules of the chunin exams? Any visiting shinobi or kunoichi found killing anyone outside of the exams is immediately expelled from the exams and could face execution. Not to mention that the village of the guilty party is kicked out of the exams along with all other participates of that village." Sakura smirked, "Do really want to risk that Gaara? Killing someone you already beaten?"

Gaara shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't care about the exams. You two won't live long enough to see the end anyway. And right now," Gaara's turned his head towards Lee, "all I care about is if that's fools blood is good enough for mother."

Sakura was taken aback by the sand shinobi's comment. This guy was a _damn_ psychopath. And this wasn't the normal cold-blooded psychotic that many veteran shinobi acted liked. Gaara had just proven to her that he had one too many screws loose in his head. Sakura had read enough books, and watched some of those new moving picture shows people kept talking about, that when someone said blood and mother in the same sentence that usually meant that there are going to be some deaths following right after. And by the looks of it Lee, Shikamaru, and her would be the next victims.

"You got any other plans Sakura?"

"Not helping Shikamaru."

"No, but maybe I can."

Leaning against the door frame of the hospital room was 'The Green Beast of Konoha,' Might Gai himself. The jounin was glaring down at Gaara, who was staring back with the same unfazed expression, as Sakura and Shikamaru attention shifted between the two.

"I go to the restroom for a few minutes and I come back to find that three genin ready to rip each others throats out. That has to be a new record if I ever seen one." Gai continues, "But I don't appreciate people who threaten to kill my students and my comrade's students."

"I could care less about what you appreciate and don't appreciate. I _want_ my kill. And if I have to kill all of you to achieve it, so be it-"

"And what makes you think I'll sit back and let that happen?" Gai interrupted Gaara, "Think very carefully about this, I trained Lee. I thought him everything he knows so I possess the same techniques as well. The only difference is that Lee only has a fraction of my strength and experience. And he broke through your defenses leaving you in a crater. Do you have any idea what I could do to you?"

The tension between the two shinobi was so thick that Sakura and Shikamaru felt like they were choking on the very air itself. The two remained silent as they glared at each other, not moving a single inch. But out of the corner of Sakura's eye see saw something happening with Lee's body. The sand encasing the unconscious teenager's body begun to slowly fall off the bed and sliding across the floor towards Gaara. The sand slid up the red heads body and molded into his skin till the naked eye couldn't tell the difference between the shinobi's pale flesh and the rough little specks of earth.

"Fine, I'll leave. But this isn't over."

Gai turned his head towards Shikamaru and nodded. Shikamaru nodded in return before he released Gaara from his jutsu. Without pause Gaara walked past the three Konoha shinobi and out of the room. After the Suna shinobi left the room Gai promptly shut the door behind him and walked over to Lee's bedside.

"Thank you, both of you. If you hadn't stalled him…" Gai sighed as the two genin saw the tiniest hints of sadness in his eyes. But that sadness quickly vanished as Gai turned back to Sakura and Shikamaru with his big happy grin on his face and giving them a thumbs up. "But you two had helped stop that wretched assassin from taking my precious student from me. It is wonderful to see the springtime of youth shining so brightly in those still in the prime of their youth. Especially coming from two fellow comrades whose own youths have dimmed over the years!"

The two genin only looked on at the older man utterly confused, not even sure how to response to what was said to them.

"…Umm okay." Shikamaru broke the silence, "So you are going to bring this to the Hokage right? You're not seriously going to let that nutcase go free, right?"

"Of course not. Even though it's disappointing to see someone who had made it so far in the exams to be disqualified, my responsibilities to my students out weights my personal preferences on competition."

"You don't know how relieving it is to hear that Gai-sensei." Sakura smiled

"But I am going to ask you two a favor."

"What is it Gai-sensei?"

"I need to stay and watch over Lee in case Gaara come back. So I need you two to go the Hokage's office and tell him what happened here. If he doesn't believe you, just tell him to send some people here and I'll explain everything."

"Of course sensei!" Both Genin answered

Gai nodded, "Good, I swear that we won't let that boy get away with this."

Gaara's mother didn't approve of his decision to let those Konoha shinobi live. Her voice wouldn't stop screaming inside his head telling him to go back and drain the blood from their warm bodies. Gaara tried to calm her by saying he would go out into the forest to find some wild animals to satisfy her, but she reprimanded him for even suggesting that. She demanded that he'd find another human, preferably a shinobi or kunoichi, alone so no one could interrupt them. After all, wasn't a good son supposed to make his mother happy no matter what?

* * *

(Outside of Konoha)

Blackwall had his doubts about leading this diplomatic mission to the east, and in many aspects still did. When he was informed that he would lead a mission to the lands to the east, his ego and pride was almost too much to contain. It also didn't help his ego that the Praetor Marcus had personally chosen him due to the recognition he'd received while leading men into battle during the Northern Uprising. Yet when Blackwall found out who would be accompanying him during the mission, his pride was quickly replaced with a foreboding sense of trouble.

When the dossier of Ulysses appeared on his desk, Blackwall was thoroughly impressed with the man's service record. Born into the order of the Hashashins, a religious order of assassins from one of the ethnic people from the eastern dessert, Ulysses was trained to be a scout, mediator, and assassin. After performing several notable accomplishments, Ulysses was accepted as an initiate to the Frumentarii. Blackwall was pleased that he would have a distinguished member of the Frumentarii joining him on his mission. But it wasn't until he saw who the next person was joining them on the mission.

Joshua Graham had earned a rather infamous reputation among the armies and Immunes of the Imperium that gave him the nickname 'the Burn Man.' Joshua had gotten the name when he and his team at the time were captured by bandits while returning from a mission. The bandits killed the team but Joshua was tied him up and set him on fire before throwing him off a cliff into a raging river. But instead of dying, Joshua walked out of the river and returned to the bandits during the dead of night and slaughtered them while they slept. After that he walked to the nearest Legion post and informed them about everything that happened. But it wasn't Joshua's drive to complete the mission that concerned Blackwall was how Ulysses and him were going to act to each other.

Long ago in the Eastern Dessert there were two great kingdoms that constantly warred against each other for centuries over territory. It had gotten to a point where every child of both cultures had hatred bred into them by the time they could speak their first words. Fortunately, if one could look at it that way, when the Imperium came and conquered the land the two warring kingdoms were forced to sign a peace treaty that 'pacified' the region. Though an uneasy peace continued on for decades there were still high tensions between the two cultures.

Blackwall hadn't witness any real forms of aggression between the two warriors other then the occasional passive-aggressive remark or standoffish attitude towards each other. Naruto as well didn't report any incidents of the two trying to kill each other, so that was a plus. Blackwall guessed that their professionalism towards a mission outweighed their personal beliefs. And speaking of the blonde easterner, his dossier surprised Blackwall the most.

The first fact that caught his eye was that Naruto was from the Elemental Nations. No doubt he was chosen to advise the team on local customs and etiquette. But what really stood out to Blackwall was that Naruto fought in the northern uprising, and more specifically, at the infamous Siege of Tsaritsyn. Blackwall had read the reports that came out during that gods-forsaken battle. Legionaries losing limbs from volleys of rifle shots, people being burned alive from crude fire bombs, dogs used to hunt bears were sent to hunt humans instead, the list went on and on about the depravities that went on in that city. How Naruto managed to stay sane during that time, Blackwall might never know.

So when Naruto requested to hide his identity when they arrived in the Elemental Nations Blackwall didn't deny him. Yet when the leader of this village and his subordinates confront them after Naruto's identity was relived, he was curious and concerned about the whole situation. After a brief explanation from the blonde Blackwall, Joshua, and Ulysses all agreed that their mission just became a touch more complicated. But if one thing came out of all of this, it was that the Hokage had sympathy for the blonde and apparently a powerful sage would be training him for the next month. This circumstance could prove invaluable while negotiations between the Hokage and Praetor Marcus.

But until then all Blackwall could do was trained Joshua, with Ulysses help, for this tournament they had to participate in.

"Alright you two, break's over with. Let's get back to training."

Joshua looked up from his book as he sat under a nearby tree. The bandaged man closed his book and placed in his pocket before standing up. Ulysses seized carving symbols into the same tree with his knife.

"Yes sir." Joshua said, "Will we pick up from where we left off?"

"No, we'll be working on your defensive skill this time. Ulysses and I will-"

Blackwall couldn't finish the sentence as a sense of utter dread feel upon him and the area. It felt like an entire herd of cattle was stacked on top of his chest. Without thinking he drew out his sword and pointed it towards the edge of the tree line. Every fiber of his being telling him that the source was originating from there. Glancing over to his team, Blackwall saw both Joshua and Ulysses at his sides ready to attack whatever was coming towards them. Yet as the three of them waited, the sound of someone clapping slowly started to echo from the forest.

A man with long black hair and snow-white skin walked out of the forest with a smug grin plastered onto his face. His yellow serpent eyes unnerved Blackwall to no end. Even the simple presence of this man made his muscles tense and every instinct in his body screaming to attack this man.

"Quiet impressive if I might say Blackwall-san and associates. Most others would've been too paralyzed to move let alone ready themselves for a fight."

"Explain yourself Easterner! You've just interrupted a private training session-"

"That's enough Ulysses. Let me handle this." Blackwall stopped the assassin from continuing. Blackwall's attention shifted back to the man. "But I would like an explanation why you would interrupt us Mister?"

"Orochimaru is my name good sir." The man gave a slight bow, "And I have come with a proposition for your leaders."

"What makes you think my superiors are interested in your deal?"

Orochimaru chuckled, "I have on good authority that your superiors are coming to speak with the Hokage and Daimyo of this land about increasing relations and trade."

"How did you even hear of this? Very few people were informed about the details of our mission?" Joshua asked

"I have very good sources friend. Now back to my proposal." Orochimaru cleared his throat, "I represent a small coalition seeking to overthrow Konoha and the Land of Fire as the top power of the Elemental Nations."

"So how does this involve the Imperium?"

"Straight to the point, I like that. No need to discuss ethics or reasons why-"

"Get to the point before my patience runs out."

Orochimaru's smirked disappeared as he crossed his arms.

"To be blunt, you and the Imperium are a neutral party in this affair. You don't lose anything if Konoha falls, but you have much to gain if they did. So here's the proposal, you westerners agree to help my collation take down Konoha and we'll give you a better diplomatic deal then whatever the Hokage or Daimyo could give you. Exclusive trade rights, industrial investment, maybe even a few acres of land for colonies. What do you say?"

Blackwall pondered Orochimaru's offer for a moment. Those would be very good deal if this man could deliver on his promises. But there was no reason to not tell him that yet.

"And what makes you think were interested in your deal?"

Orochimaru let out a small laugh, "Oh don't try to play the simpleton Blackwall. It really doesn't suit you. But I know the Imperium loves to expanding oversea colonies and setting up local businesses that generate wealth for them. Do you really think they would pass up a chance like this? And all you have to do is sending some men to help take over this country."

Blackwall knew that Orochimaru had a good point. Ever since the last kingdom was brought under the Imperium, many leaders decided that to expand prosperity of the Imperium by expanding their influence to far away exotic lands. Most of the time diplomacy handled the issues involving other kingdoms or nations while an expedition of colonists would settle unclaimed lands. Though once in awhile when there were _complications_ the Imperium would use force to bring whatever was causing them trouble to its knees. A fact Blackwall didn't feel strongly for or against. He was a soldier, His job was to make sure his orders were fulfilled not to make deals that affected millions of lives.

"Your offer does sound tempting Orochimaru. But unfortunately I don't have the authority to accept that deal. I'll need to bring it to my superiors and they'll need to agree on it."

Orochimaru nodded, "Fair enough. But don't take too long though, my plans will be executed during the tournament at the end of the month. I'd hate for your comrades to be hurt by my associates because they weren't informed not to engage them."

"Is that a threat?" Ulysses said

"More like an unfortunate consequence." Orochimaru replied, "I'll have one of my subordinate keep in contact with you if anything comes up. And with that I must say goodbye westerners. I have a very eventful few weeks coming up and I want to be ready. Till we meet again."

In a flash Orochimaru disappeared from the area, leaving behind the three shocked westerners back to their own affairs. The group stood in silence as none of them knew what to say or do next. They were just proposition to join in a government overthrow and be rewarded in numerous ways apparently. This offer appeared to be too good to be true.

"Were not actually going to take this offer seriously are we?" Joshua asked

"What worried that innocent people may get got in the crossfire?" Ulysses said

"Your people may abandoned basic kindness, but my people haven't-"

"That's enough you too." Blackwall interrupted, "Like I said, this isn't our call to make. I'll go contact the Praetor about this. If he agrees then we follow his orders. But right now we go back to training. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

 **This is how the Sakura and Shikamaru confrontation with Gaara played out in my head:**

 **Sakura initiates speech-check on Gaara.**

 **Gaara negates speech-check.**

 **Sakura and Shikamaru are screwed.**

 **And before any of you start complaining about her strength, sorry she doesn't have it. Sakura got that strength from Tsunade's training during the 3 year gap. And since Tsuande hasn't returned to the village yet that means no super strength for Sakura right now.**

 **But anyway guys it's good to be back updating and hopefully all of you enjoyed the chapter. And remember I'm open to reviews and feel free to PM me if you want. Also if you do leave a critique in the reviews try to make it constructive as possible. I can't really improve my story much if someone is just ranting like a mad man. If I'm not told what's wrong I really can't fix it can I?**

 **See you all in the chapter.**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Calm Before the Storm

"Talking"

" **Thinking"**

 _ **Jutsu/Attack**_

 _Flashback_

Disclaimer: Yup still don't own Naruto.

* * *

(Waterfall, Konoha Outskirts)

Naruto stood in the middle of his five shadow clones, each one in a fighting stance and ready to pounce on the blonde. Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath to ease before dropping down into the standard legionnaire boxing stance. But once he did so all the clones rushed at him. The clone in front of him gave a quick jab only for Naruto to duck under the punch and deliver a quick strike at the clone's gut. The clone immediately exploded in a plume of smoke, but before Naruto could reset himself, the two clones on his right and left flanks closed in on their target. Naruto managed to block the clone on his right, and even was able to toss the doppelganger away from him, but failed to stop the clone on his left from landing a hard kick to the side of his head.

Naruto stumbled back as the clone pressed its attack against the blonde warrior. While this was happening, the two other clones launched themselves towards Naruto's back. Yet before they could reach him, Naruto broke through the clone's attack and landed a chakra enhanced hay-maker straight to the clone's neck causing a loud sickening sound of the neck snapping. The clone erupted into another plume of smoke, two done, three more to go. Turning his head Naruto saw the two clone charging at him. Thinking quickly he jumped into the air, allowing both clones to be right under him, and pulled out two knives before slamming the blades into the their backs. Naruto landed on his feet, but keeping both knives out.

The last clone, the one Naruto tossed, had finally got back onto his feet. Seeing its compatriots fail in their attack, and seeing no other option, charged in one last ditch effort to defeat its creator. Unfortunately the clone had only managed to make it halfway before Naruto saw it coming and threw a knife directly at its head. It would have been a kill blow if now for the clone dodging in the nick of time and caught the knife. Seeing little choice, and not wanting to waste his other weapon, Naruto charged at his clone ready for a close quarters knife fight.

Nether Naruto or the clone had the advantage in the fight. Since both were essentially the same person they knew all the moves and tactics the other would try and employ against the other. Every strike that ether of them made was blocked or dodged. Yet as the fight continued an idea popped into the clones head. Jumping back a short distance the clone dropped into a defensive stance, hoping that Naruto would charge. And charge Naruto did.

Seeing its plan had work, the clone kicked at the ground below sending a dust cloud of rocks and dirt heading towards Naruto. But unfortunately for the clone, Naruto saw the distraction coming and stopped in his tracks allowing the dust cloud pass right by him. But once Naruto stopped the clone launched itself straight for him with the knife aimed at his heart. Naruto's response to the attack, he merely stepped out of the way and in a single motion tossed his knife from his left hand while his right grabbed the clone's left arm that held its knife. With a small pull of its left arm the clone lost its balance within seconds, it's attacking completely falling apart. Without hesitation Naruto drove his knife deep into the nape of the clone's neck. The last clone erupted into the final could of smoke. Naruto stood there for a moment to catch his breath before picking up the clone's knife and placing both blade back into their holster.

Not the one of Naruto's finest spars, but it got the job done.

"Well done kid, a little sloppy at the beginning but you saved it. How are you feeling?"

Naruto turned to see Jiraiya sitting on a red rug and underneath his bamboo umbrella. His temporary masters favorite position to observe his student's training.

"I'm fine."

"Good, I don't need you seriously injured on me just five days before the tournament starts."

Naruto soaked in Jiraiya's words, he couldn't believe a month had past already. The blonde was both excited and terrified at the news. He was worried because there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to keep his promise to Hinata by not defeating Neji. There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that his skills, particularly his defensive skills, had vastly improved while training under his perverted teacher. But hearing and witnessing how deadly Neji was as a melee fight and seeing how little regard the Hyuga had for killing his cousin, Naruto was nervous about what Neji could do to him. But even with the possibility for failure there, Naruto just couldn't contain his excitement.

The Praetor Maximus, the right hand of the emperor and leader of the Imperium's armies, was coming to witness him and his team show their combat prowess. Any Legionnaire, Immunes, Frumentarii, or whatever kind of solider who had a shred ambition in their being knew that to advance themselves in the military or the Imperial Senate knew they would have to impress the Praetor Maximus. The leader of the military essentially had final say in whether or not you would be promoted to a more prestigious or influential position. And here was Naruto's chance to do so.

Naruto wanted to become a member of the Praetorian Guard. Not only for the better pay and benefits, but to have more influence in decisions that affected the entire Imperium. Being in the Praetorian would allow him to be the gatekeeper of what polices get brought to the Praetor's attention and even influence senators behind a figure of authority with little chance of imprisonment. This was his chance to his chance to finally achieve his goal.

Ever since Naruto arrived in the Imperium he had witness things that would have appalled the Dragons to no end. A sea of corruption, racism from the native Imperials towards those they conquered, and a laundry list long of other oppressive polices that kept the poorer classes in their place. Seeing firsthand how large of a powder keg that could erupt if the Imperium's military faltered during the Northern Uprising, Naruto vowed he would change the Imperium's government from within and make it a better for everyone no matter what their background was. An idealist's view some say, a mixture of naivety, hope, and determination. It probably was, but Naruto was determined to see this goal through. Even if would cost him his life.

"Alright kid I have some news for you, so listen up."

Taken out of his inner thoughts, Naruto brought his focus back to Jiraiya. The older man got up from his seat and proceeded to walk over to Naruto.

"What's up pervy-sage?"

"First off I just wanted to say you've really improved kid. But that's a given, you did train under the renowned toad sage himself for a month."

"If you're done ego-stroking yourself pervy-sage can you please get on with it-"

"And since that month is up I'm sad to say this is where we have to part ways."

Naruto's expression had turned from that of bored exhaustion to that of confusion.

"But we both agreed that my training would end three days before the tournament. Why the early end?"

"Just an old colleague of mine and his foolish plan I have to deal with." Jiraiya said, "I don't want to bore you with the detail kid, just understand that it is important."

"Must be one hell of a plan if he needs your help."

"Ohh it's an ambitious one, I'll give him that." Jiraiya muttered, "It shouldn't take that long though. I should be back in time for the opening day of the tournament."

Naruto nodding his head, and in a move that surprised Jiraiya, and extended his right hand waiting for the older man to shake it. Jiraiya wasted no time and shook Naruto's hand.

"I know I've been giving you a lot of shit this past month pervy-sage, but I really do appreciate what you did for me this past month."

"No problem kid, just remember what I taught you and there's no doubt in my mind you'll beat that Hyuga and win the tournament." Jiraiya pulls back his hand. "Enjoy your extra few days of relaxation kid because I don't think you're going to get much come opening day."

"Yeah, you can say that again pervy-sage." Naruto said with a small smile, "Maybe we'll meet each other again after the tournament and before I head back to the Imperium."

"Hopefully, and if we don't, well I just wanted to say it was a pleasure training you kid."

* * *

(Konoha Market District, the next day)

Naruto never expected any of the shops of Konoha to be filled with the brim with so many luxurious and miscellaneous items. Not that he had any memories to compare then to begin with. No merchant or shop owner wanted 'the demon brat' to show up and drive away business. It was a good thing that the blond teen still had his fox mask or else everyone in Konoha would've collectively shit their pants. No, that would have to wait the tournament. But until then Naruto would just have to spend his time sightseeing and revisiting old memories.

Naruto kept browsing through the shelves and tables with an assortment of random objects laying on top of the furniture's. Metal gears and parts that appeared to have been stripped clean from a machine, detailed wooden & porcelain figurines made with expert craftsmanship, there was even clothes neatly folded for the professional weaver or amateur sower ready to be sold. The shop was filled with such items that didn't really grabbed Naruto's interest. That was until he saw an old wooden guitar case with the guitar still inside leaning up against the wall.

Naruto walked over to the instrument and kneeled down to begin inspecting the condition. Other than two missing strings, the guitar was in surprising good shape given the near rotten texture of the case. Naruto couldn't help but smile at the sight of the acoustic instrument, it had been far too long since he had touched one. Between missions and guard detail, he could never find the time to buy a guitar or practice. But now was the perfect chance. No training for the tournament, Blackwall giving the whole team time off before the Praetor Maximus arrived, And especially no store owner treating to call the guards to arrest him. This was the perfect time to buy the object that has eluded him for so long.

"I take it that old guitar has peaked your interest sir?"

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts as a man's voice came from behind him. He turned around to see a man with short cropped brown hair wearing a dark blue yukata smiling down at him. Yet the man's cheerful expression was quickly replaced with one of questioning with a slight hint of disgust when he saw the fox mask.

"Umm why do you have _that_ mask on?"

Naruto got up to his feet.

"Is there a problem sir?"

"People around here don't like foxes kid. Hell we hunted the entire local fox population around here to extinction."

"Ohh, I'm sorry that I offended you. I'm not exactly from around here." Naruto said, **"Better play the tourist card for this one. No need to give this asshole any ideas."**

The man was taken back.

"Ohh my bad sir, I assume that-ahh never mind. So you were interested in that guitar?"

" **Might as well poke and prod this guy for his view on the fox."** Naruto thought, "No please tell me. I would like to know why people don't like foxes around here. I don't want to another misunderstanding to happen later."

The man slowly turned his head to the sides to see if anyone was nearby that could hear what he was going to say. There was no one else in his little store.

"Okay I'll tell you. Just keep your voice down, not a lot of people like talking about _that_ night." The man whispered, "Almost two decades ago our village was attacked by the great fox demon known as the Kyubi no Kitsune. Many people died that night and the entire village was nearly destroyed. If it wasn't for the fourth Hokage defeating that creature we wouldn't be talking right now. So foxes, or anything depicting foxes, just reminds all of us of how many colleagues and loved ones we lost."

Naruto nodded, he didn't agree with the man's view by any means. Experiencing the villagers forms of vengeance first hand left him slow to forgive. But at least he finally knew the reason behind their actions.

"Well at least it explains why so many people kept giving me weird looks."

The man waved it off with his hand, "Ehh just forget about. Now we were talking about you and possibly your new guitar."

The two men discussed for a short amount of time before agreeing on the price. Apparently the guitar used to belong to a drifter that came into the shop one day to pawn it for money and never returned. After a little tune up and attaching some spare strings, Naruto walked out of the store carrying his new guitar inside his new guitar case. The blond first thought he should go to his team's hotel room to drop off his new purchase, but quickly decided against it. Naruto knew that there were many people visiting Konoha for the tournament, people who usually brought a lot of money with them. Perhaps he could go into the main market square and serenade few people for a little extra pay?

"Vulpes, Vulpes is that you?!"

Naruto turned around to see Sakura waving at him with Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji following right behind her. Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he waved back at the small group. He didn't need them _accidentally_ tell everyone in the village his actual identity. Though the potential hilarity from seeing the shopkeeper's reaction to selling something to the 'demon brat' wasn't lost to Naruto. Actually he didn't want his few days of relaxation to be interrupted by the random mob.

Sakura ran up to Naruto and gave him a hug.

"You have no idea how good it is too see you. How have you been?"

"Ohh you know, training mostly." Naruto said, "Thankfully I've got a few days for sightseeing before the tournament and the representative from the Imperium shows up. What about you Sakura, how was the month of not worrying about fighting anyone?"

"Pretty boring actually. Not much too do when most of your friends and teammates are training, all major shinobi missions postponed, and basically having nothing important to do can take its toll."

Ino came up behind Sakura and hooked her left arm around the pink haired teen shoulder.

"But what about me forehead?" Ino said with a playful tone in her voice. "Wasn't I enough to keep you company?"

Sakura smiled back at her childhood friend.

"Ohh you were good company miss piggy, up until you wouldn't shut up about your precious 'Sai-Kun.'"

Ino, in an over dramatic expression, let go of Sakura and gave a fake gasp.

"Don't you bring him into this forehead or else."

"Or else what Mrs. Piggy?"

"Or else a certain rumor about you and green spandex jr. will start floating around the village."

"You wouldn't dare."

Naruto stood and watched the two teenage girls descended into a frenzy of bickering and insults. Unsure of what to do now, his attention went to the two males standing behind Sakura and Ino. Shikamaru was watching the two females with clear disinterest plastered onto his face. Choji showed he was more interested in his bag of potato chips then in the little scene happening before them. Naruto slowly walked around the two girls and went over to the two shinobi.

"They do this often?" Naruto asked

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, "At least twice a week if both of them are in the village at the same time."

"So what brings you all to the market district today huh?"

Choji stopped eating his bag of chips.

"Just wanted to take Shikamaru out to lunch today for finishing his training."

"Awww," Naruto shifted his gaze to Shikamaru, "So you nervous about going up against that woman from Suna?"

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders again.

"Not really, but I already know it would be too much trouble dealing with her or with anyone else. Too be honest I might just forfeit when my match comes around."

"Don't say that Shikamaru, you've been training real hard this past month." Chouji spoke in between biting his food.

"Yeah, maybe." Shikamaru turned his head towards Naruto, "Though you should be more nervous then I. You got to fight Neji Hyuga. And even if you somehow manage a win there's still ether Sasuko or that red haired psycho Gaara."

Naruto couldn't help but let out a chuckle. Everyone one of his opponents had their strengths, but he had plans against each one of them. Neji fighting style relied on heavy on close quarter combat, so if Naruto remaiedn at a distance and wear the Hyuga down with potshots he could be the winner. Gaara was a little trickier due to his unnatural ability to control sand, and since the arena would be mostly dirt, the red head was given the terrain advantage. But a few well-placed explosives could give the blonde an opening. It was actually Sasuko that would be the most challenging to him.

After prodding Jiraiya for a few days, Naruto got the perverted teacher to give up some information about the female Uchiha. The Kunoichi was at the top of her genin class while in the academy and had a talent for both long range ninjutsu and taijutsu. So he couldn't stand back at a distance and any hand-to-hand fight would probably be difficult. Genjutsu could've been an option, but Naruto simply didn't have the aptitude for creating illusions. Both the Imperium and the Dragons thought him the basics about how to dispel genjutsu, but neither group thought him how too preform it. Both groups believed that a warrior should take the direct method of fighting rather then resorting to 'cheap pallor tricks.' So any fight against Sasuko would be no doubt difficult in any shape or form.

But all these thoughts about his opponent can wait till tournament day. Right now Naruto just wanted to enjoy his relaxation.

"Why do I need to be worried? I got plans for each person participating in the tournament. I even have one for you Shikamaru."

Shikamaru nodded before turning his gaze back at Sakura and Ino.

"With how bad you kicked Kiba's ass the thought of me forfeiting just became more appealing."

"I think those too have finally come to an agreement" Choji said

"Finally" Shikamaru replied

Naruto returned his attention to the Sakura and Ino to see the both of them shaking hands with a smile on Ino's face and Sakura glaring at her.

"You better remember this time Ino or I swear I'll ride your ass on this on."

"Oh come on Sakura you know I'm good for it."

"Yeah I'll believe when I see it." Said Sakura as her attention went back to Naruto. And more particularly to Naruto's new guitar. "Hmm I didn't know you know how to play a guitar."

Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"I picked up a little here and a little there. Never really had to chance to practice or buy a guitar for myself until now."

It had been a long time since Naruto first learned the basics on how to play a guitar or even touched one. During the Northern Uprising Naruto had meet a legionnaire from one of the armies his old squad had been assigned too. The two had become quick acquaintances and when both of them had some free time the legionnaire would teach him the basics on how to play with the man's guitar he brought from his home. Naruto remembered the legionnaire telling him that he was a musician and was only conscripted to help the dire situation of the lack of manpower the army faced during the uprising. Naruto also remembered finding the legionnaire's corpse after a surprise rebel cannon bombardment on the camp. The man's cold hand clutching a broken pile of wood and metal strings, his upper body lying in a pool of viscera, finding his lower half blown off and lying nearly ten yards away…

No, he couldn't think about that. He _mustn't_ think about that.

"Are you any good?" Ino asked, "And you wouldn't mind playing for us right?"

"I'm decent enough and you wouldn't want to hear me play."

"Come on Vulpes. I would love to see you play." Said Sakura

"It would be quiet interesting actually." Choji added

"I suggest you just humor them Vulpes." Shikamaru spoke up, "They won't stop until you do."

Naruto sighed as he raise his hand in defeat.

"Alright, alright I'll play for you guys. But let's head to the marker square. You guys can get some food while I get set up."

The small group of teens made their way through the streets of Konoha and towards the market square. As the five teen got closer to the square more and more people began to fill the unpaved streets and buildings. It wasn't long before the group reached the market square. Stalls filled the bulk of the large plaza with merchants selling their wares to civilians. The majority of the buildings lining the plaza were restaurants feeding their customers with the exception for a small number of the buildings being ether warehouses or larger shops housing the wealthier traders. There was even a fair amount of civilian militiamen, an appointed group of armed civilians responsible for handling all non-shinobi essential duties for the village, patrolling the market for any would be criminal.

The five teenagers looked on in wonder at the amount of activity going on all at once. It wasn't until Naruto decided to step away from the other four did they come back to their senses. They decided on going to a barbecue restaurant and while the four genin ordered the food, Naruto would save them a table and get his guitar ready. Yet as they walked towards the restaurant, they failed to notice a pair of brown eyes following them.

Anko had spent most of her day, and past month, utterly bored. Ever since the Hokage announced that nearly all nonessential shinobi and kunoichi would be allowed leave to enjoy the tournament and festivals, Anko had been sitting around Konoha with nothing to do. No missions or prisoners to interrogate left the snake mistress with an amount of free time she hadn't seen since she was a genin. This would've been perfect if it wasn't for her only friends going off and training their students for the tournament. Now Anko's day consisted of sit around eating dango, watching people go about their day, and occasionally scare off the occasional pervert or creep trying get under her skirt. That was until her favorite blonde appeared with Asuma's whole team and the Sakura girl from Kakashi's team before the Snake Mistress.

Anko looked on inquisitively as the five entered one of the many restaurants of the plaza. Out of curiosity the kunoichi got up from her seat and followed them into the restaurant, keeping out of sight. No reason to disturb their little outing, at least not yet.

Naruto sat himself down at one of the few empty tables of the restaurant and took his instrument out of the case. A few of the nearby civilians turned their heads when the blonde started plucking the strings to hear what needed to be tuned. It didn't take long for Naruto too fix the tune and as he made the finishing touches the four genin returned. Sakura, Ino, Chojii, and Shikamaru sat down at the table, all looking at Naruto with interest in their eyes.

"So how long before our food is ready?" Naruto asked

Choji answered, "About thirty minutes or so, we got pork if that's alright. We kind of forgot to ask what you would want."

Naruto didn't look up, more focused on his guitar then anything.

"It's fine Choji."

Ino, tired of waiting, decided to get to the point why they brought Naruto along.

"So Naruto what are you going to play?"

Naruto still didn't look up from his guitar.

"There's this one song I remember hearing awhile back. I wondering if I can remember tune…"

Sakura spoke up, "What's the name of the song?"

"I believe it was call _Reilly's Sorrow_ or something like that." Naruto smiled as he plucked the last string, his instrument was finally ready. "There we go, let's get started."

As Naruto begun to play, the people around them slowly stopped what they were doing and turned to find the source of the music. The slow melody of the song filled the restaurant as the mood changed from that of relative joy to a more somber tone. Naruto hummed along with the tune till he opened his mouth…

 _Well it's by the hush, me boys, and sure that's to hold your noise_

 _And listen to poor Reilly's sad narration_

 _I was by hunger press, and by poverty distressed_

 _So I took a thought I'd leave the Hibernian Kingdom_

 _Well I sold my ass and cow, my little pigs and sow_

 _My plot of land I soon part with_

 _And my sweetheart Bid McGee, I'm afraid I'll never see_

 _For I left her there morning broken-hearted_

 _Here you boys, now take my advice_

 _To the Imperium I'll have ye not be going_

 _There's nothing here but war, where murdering cannons roar_

 _And I wish I was home in dear old Eblana_

 _Well myself and hundred more, to Palatium we sailed over_

 _Our fortunes to be making we were thinkin'_

 _When we got to Imperial land, they put swords in our hands_

" _Reilly you must go and fight for Empire"_

 _Here you boys, now take my advice_

 _To the Imperium I'll have ye not be going_

 _There's nothing here but war, where murdering cannons roar_

 _And I wish I was home in dear old Eblana_

 _The general said, if you get shot or lose your head_

 _Every murdered soul of you will get a pension_

 _Well in the war I lost my leg, they gave me a wooden peg_

 _And by soul it is the truth to you I mention_

 _Here you boys, now take my advice_

 _To the Imperium I'll have ye not be going_

 _There's nothing here but war, where murdering cannons roar_

 _And I wish I was home in dear old Eblana_

 _Well I think myself lucky, if I get fed frozen muck_

 _And old Hibernia is the country I delight in_

 _To the devil, I would say, I curse the Imperials_

 _For truth I've had enough of your hard fighting_

 _Here you boys, now take my advice_

 _To the Imperium I'll have ye not be going_

 _There's nothing here but war, where murdering cannons roar_

 _And I wish I was home in dear old Eblana…_

The restaurant was silent as Naruto plucked the last strings of his guitar and ended the song. Every man and woman looked on in stun silence as none of them knew what to do next. But the sound of clapping started too circulated around the room till everyone in the restaurant erupted in cheer. Seeing the amount of praise he was getting, Naruto stood up from his seat and gave a small bow to the crowd. This only went on for a minute or so before the people in the restaurant went back to their own personal business. Naruto took this as the sign to put his guitar back in its case and proceed to eat his food.

"Wow Vulpes, that, that was amazing." Sakura said

Naruto continued to eat his bowl of barbecue with his head lowered so no one could see his face. Sure he had a genjutsu activated to change how his face looked, but still better safe than sorry.

"It was alright. Give me a few months to a year, then that would be something to see."

"Are you kidding that sounded great." Choji spoke out between his bites, "You're giving yourself too little credit."

"All I'm saying is withhold any judgement till after I had some time to practice." Naruto said, "Actually I should be the one giving you four credit for not saying my real name."

"Yeah we got orders straight from the Hokage to only refer to you as Vulpes." Shikamaru said, "Don't really understand why though."

"It's complicated, I'll leave it at that." Naruto stopped eating as he looked up at everyone. "How much did they tell you?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Just something about a terrible event that you got yourself mixed up in. The ANBU that told us kept it rather vague. Too troublesome to investigate further."

" **Wow old man, still looking after me all this time. I really got to sit down and talk with him before I leave."**

A smile spread across Naruto's face at his thought. This made everyone else curious as none of them knew what going through his mind. Ino's curiosity though got the best of her.

"What happened?"

"Ohh you four don't have to worry. That happened years ago, no reason to bring up things that have been laid to rest." Naruto said as he went back to eating his pork. **"Well not until the tournament at least. If you're going to bring up the past, might as well do it in style."**

Sakura spoke, "Yeah it's probably for the best. If you don't want to bring it up, we won't force you-"

"Foxy-Kun!"

Naruto felt a body jump onto his back as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his neck. The blonde spat up his meal back into his bowl while the others looked on startled. Naruto begun to feel the sensation of soft skin rubbing against his back. The blonde turned his head to meet the playful expression on Anko's face. Why did this woman have to give him a mini-heart attack?

"Mitarashi-san-"

Anko pouted, "What did I say about being so formal with me Foxy-kun? I told you to call me Anko-chan."

"Well Anko-chan, you see I was eating with fellow shinobi and I would've preferred not to choke in front of everyone."

"Ohh don't worry about choking Foxy-kun. I know some _ways_ that can help." Anko nibbled Naruto's ear before looking up at the four Konoha genin. "You four can move along now. I'll keep my Foxy-kun company from here on out."

Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were astonished at how Anko Mitarashi, their superior and one of the most fearsome kunoichi in Konoha, was acting in front of them. Sure each of their own senseis' were far from perfect, Kakashi being a pervert and Asuma a heavy smoker, but they have never seen any Konoha shinobi or kunoichi act like this. None of them even knew why Anko was treating Naruto like this.

"Umm so it sounds like you two now each other." Sakura said

Anko, stopping her attempts of trying to kiss Naruto, looked up at Sakura with a smile on her face.

"Foxy-kun and I had a little date right after the preliminaries." Anko sighed euphorically, "Serenading me just like that night."

"Then what was Asuma and Kurenai doing there then?" Naruto asked

Anko merely waved her hand, "It was a double date then. If we're being honest, it was more for them then us. They seriously need to screw already and stop acting like two awkward teenager on a first date." Anko press Naruto closer to her chest. "But it's not like we didn't benefited from it. Isn't that right foxy-kun?"

Ino couldn't believe the audacity of this woman. The near shameless way she dressed or the way she unapologetically flirted in front of a crowd left her dumbfounded. Ino knew perfectly well she wasn't one to talk. She flirt with the unsuspecting person sometimes nor exactly wore clothing that left a lot to the imagination. But at least she was subtle and knew when to stop once a large enough group of people started looking.

"Can you please stop molesting Vulpes please? We're already getting more attention than needed."

Anko shifted her focus to Ino.

"Ohh your one to talk blondie. I've heard from Asuma that you're the little flirt as well." Anko's right hand begun to slowly slid down the inner trim of her trench coat. "Or are you just jealous that foxy-kun is more attracted to my womanly features!"

And with a quick motion, Anko released Naruto and opened her trench coat to flash the people at the table. Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Choji turned away to avoid the shameless display. Ino on the other hand sat there gasped at the bold move. She could look past the flirting and the show of over affection, but this was a step to far.

"Don't you have any shame? Flashing yourself in public-what the hell?"

Ino paused as she got a clearer look at what was underneath Anko's trench coat. She expect to find a braless chest underneath that mesh shirt. But instead there was nothing, just smooth skin going up from Anko's neckline to her miniskirt. It didn't make any sense. Could she be using a genjutsu to fool them? Ino swore if that was the case she would slap Anko. Damn the consequences.

Anko watched as the three genin and Naruto turned away from her with obvious blushes on their faces. All except for Ino, who was glaring at her while blushing. The snake mistress couldn't believe they fell for it. Anko erupted into laughter and clutched her sides due to not being able to hold in her enjoyment any longer.

"I can't believe you guys fell for my trick." Anko said between her laughs, "I wear a flesh colored shirt underneath my mesh shirt. You didn't honestly believe I go around half naked in a village full of perverts."

"But-but why?!"

Ino struggled to ask.

"You'd be surprised by the amount of people I can distract with my _naked_ chest? This trick has probably saved my life more times then I like to admit." Anko calmed down from her laughter by a tiny bit and looked at Naruto. "Don't worry Foxy-kun, I don't wear a bra so you still get a feel for my girls."

Naruto shook his head as he watched Sakura hold back a violent Ino from attacking a laughing Anko. His gaze shifted over to Shikamaru and Choji with the Nara looking at the scene with disinterest while the Akimichi continued to eat without care. As much as it was chaotic, Naruto couldn't help but feel at ease. Like this was how things were supposed to be.

His current team didn't act like this, it was mostly consisted of him keeping an eye on Joshua and Ulysses to make sure they didn't tear each other throats out. Blackwall kept in contact with Imperial command to keep the team updated and informed them if there was a change in orders. There wasn't a sense of comradery amongst them, only professionals working together to complete a mission. Nothing like his old team, god rest their souls. They didn't care what he did, they cared for who he was.

A thought crossed Naruto's mind. Would these genin, Anko, and everyone else in Konoha have been this kind to him if he had remained in the village? Sure the circumstances why he left were out of his control, but the question still made Naruto think. Sakura, Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru would no doubt hate him or at least kept their distance. Their parents would have taught them at a young age not to associate with him on any level. The reactions of the older shinobi like Anko were a mystery to Naruto. The few who knew his identity were nice to him, but he remembered the silent stares filled with resentment pointed at him as a child. What kind of world would it had been for him if he wasn't taken away by those human traffickers?

Maybe Naruto wasn't meant to find out. Perhaps the amalgamations of the universe didn't allow such questions to be answered. Naruto's mind couldn't begin to fathom the reasons why his life turned out the way it did. But he was going to make the most of it. And right now, making the most of it resulted in having fun with the four other people sitting right by him.

* * *

(Hokage Monument, the next day)

Sasuko took deep heavy breaths as she attempted to empty herself of all thoughts and emotions. At the beginning and end of each day Sasuko would meditate to clear her mind. A strong body can be a great weapon, but without a strong mind the body would be near useless. She would need both if in order to achieve her dream of avenging her fallen clan. And the location itself was vastly better for the job then her home could ever be.

The past month of training in Konoha's mountain range had been a blessing to Sasuko. The isolation of the training ground allowed her to stop holding back in ninjutsu training as the caution of damage property or hurting civilians was no longer possibility. Kakashi even begun teaching her more high-leveled ninjutsu to use in the tournament. Yet the most pleasant part was that she could meditate in peace without the constant annoyance of pesky admirers. The Hokage moment got so little visitors that Sasuko almost found it ironic.

Everyone, living or visiting, in Konoha has looked up at the stone carved faces of past leaders of the villages at least once in their lives. Yet nearly none of them had traveled up the mountain and saw the legacy of sprawling village they created. A legacy that Sasuko's clan was a part of, and downright proud. From a simple wandering shinobi clan to one of the three founders of the greatest shinobi village in all of the elemental nations. And all it took was a blood-feud with the former Senju samurai clan and honoring the peace treaty proposed by the aristocratic Hyuga clan. Maybe it wasn't coincidence why Sasuko preferred meditating near the stone head of the first Hokage. To feel some sort of physical connection to her deceased clan in relative peace and quiet.

"Ohh shit, sorry. I didn't realize anyone was up here."

Or maybe not.

Opening her eyes, Sasuko turned around to see who had spoken to her. And standing right behind her was Naruto, wearing his fox mask. Just by looking at him, Sasuko could tell that Naruto was waiting for a response from her. Sasuko turned back around and faced towards the direction of Konoha.

"It's fine."

Silence returned between the two, but Sasuko could feel Naruto's presence still behind her.

"So…how have you been?"

Sasuko opened her eyes again and let out a sigh. Might as well humor the man, he did technically save her.

"My training has been satisfactory this past month. I can assume the same for you?"

"Umm yeah it has. But that wasn't what I was asking."

Sasuko understood what Naruto was talking about. He was no doubt concerned for her well being, not that Sasuko understood why. Maybe came from the fact that he helped saved her team during the second phase of the exams. Or perhaps it was just a coincidence that the two of them meet by pure accident and was just being polite. Sasuko however didn't care ether way.

"If you're worried about me, don't. I can look after myself." Sasuko said, "I'm more curious about why a foreign shinobi is up here on the Hokage monument."

Sasuko heard Naruto chuckle.

"Well technically I'm not a foreigner. I was born in Konoha, I just haven't visited in a very long time."

"Hmmm, interesting. But that still doesn't explain why you would come up here."

"I liked coming up here and being alone. You know, just get away from people and their drama."

"Yes, I understand perfectly."

Silence returned between the two, but only for a few moments.

"Hey you don't mind if I just hang around for a bit right?" Naruto asked.

Sasuko turned her head slightly at Naruto, with eyes still closed, and nodded. The female Uchiha listen as his footsteps got closer to her and felt Naruto taking a seat right next to her. Neither of them said a word and basked in the silence that finally returned. Naruto looked on at Konoha, marveling at the beautiful sight he hadn't seen for nearly a decade. Though he did shifted his gaze towards Sasuko left shoulder occasionally. Sasuko on the other hand had remained entirely still, never once moving from her kneeling position as she cleansed herself of all thoughts and emotions. The two remained like this for hours as the sunset faded away to the starry night sky. Naruto decided that it was time to take his leave once he saw many the lamps down in Konoha began to turn on.

The blonde young man stood up and started stretching.

"Well it's been nice Sasuko, but I really need to get going. A lot of stuff happening to tomorrow."

Naruto waited for a response from Sasuko, but it never came. Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders and proceed to walk towards the trail leading down the mountain.

"Thank you."

Naruto stopped in his tracks when he heard Sasuko's near monotone voice speaking up. He turned around to see the female Uchiha still in her kneeling position.

"Umm excuse me?"

"I said thank you. It's for protecting my team and me when we were all in the Forest of Death."

" **That's right I did help protect them didn't I? Damn, I can't believe I forgot about that."** Naruto thought. Between the training with Pervy-Sage and having to prepare for his leaders arrive, Naruto didn't really have that much time to reflect on the past phases of the exams. "Ohh you don't have to thank me. And besides I wasn't alone, Rock Lee helped out too-"

"But Lee isn't here now is he?" Sasuko said, cutting Naruto off, as she started to stand up from her meditating position. "Your strength brought you this far, his didn't. So you're the only one worthy of my thanks."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he continued to watch Sasuko get up from the rocky ground. Another person who believed in the 'only the strong survive' philosophy. There was no end to these kind of people, in both the Imperium and Konoha.

"I don't know whether to take that as a complement for me or an insult towards your fellow shinobi."

"Neither, I'm just pointing out the obvious." Sasuko, now standing up on her feet, turned around and looked at Naruto. Her coal black eyes staring into his crystal pools of blue without a hint of emotion. "But even though I'm grateful. It doesn't mean I'll go easy on you during the tournament. I _will_ hold nothing back during our match."

"You sound sure of yourself."

Sasuko smirked, "And why shouldn't I be? I'm currently the strongest genin of Konoha, under the tutelage of one of Konoha's strongest jounin, and I hail from one of the strongest shinobi clans."

Naruto smiled underneath his mask.

"I'm going to enjoy wiping that smug smirk off your face."

"You'd have to beat me first."

Naruto let out a hearty laugh as he turned around and returned to the flatten dirt pathway down the mountain.

"See you during the tournament Sasuko- _chan_!"

The smirked on Sasuko's face disappeared and was replaced with a look of indifference.

"And you as well _Uzumaki-san_."

Sasuko watched as Naruto stopped in his tracks once again. She expected him to go off on her about the Hokage ordering the Konoha shinobi present during the preliminaries to keep silent about his identity. But instead Naruto continued down the path till Sasuko could no longer visibly see him. How would have thought that the little whiskered boy from her youth would return to Konoha?

Although Sasuko wasn't present, or even conscious, when Naruto's identity was revealed. Kakashi's description of him was enough for her to remember the boy who'd go around pranking the people of Konoha. True Sasuko had only seen him in person once or twice, but the amount of times she overheard her father or other members of the shinobi police talking about Naruto certainly created an image. Pouring dye into the hot springs, planting fireworks in the academies bathrooms, replacing the toilet paper of the Hokage's person bathroom with sand paper, the list of pranks that Naruto had done was a mile long. The thoughts of the past was almost enough to bring a smile to Sasuko's face. A past where her family was still alive, her brothers betrayal didn't exist, and where the future just looked so bright.

But that was the past and this was the present. Sasuko knew she didn't have the luxury of being naive like when she was a little girl. The world of the shinobi/kunoichi didn't allow such obliviousness to exist. And if Naruto thought that she would go easy on him just because he was from Konoha, he would be seriously mistaken. Sasuko wouldn't hold back for anyone; not Naruto, not her brother, not other Konoha shinobi, not even herself. To do so was an insult towards any self-respecting warrior. Her opponents in the tournament should be grateful that she was giving them the chance to fight the last Uchiha. And Sasuko would start with beating that red-haired Suna genin into the ground till he was begging for her to stop.

* * *

(Unknown Location)

Naruto awoken to the sight of white snow right before his face. He immediately jumped up from the ground to his feet once he felt the frozen sensation spread across his entire body. Naruto wrapped his arms around himself in a poor attempt of warmth. Every breath he exhaled was a small cloud of vapor while his exposed fingers began feeling more numb by the second. Naruto looked around to see where he was.

Naruto stood alone in a giant field of snow as far as the eye could see with crumbling stone and wooden buildings all around him. Pits of fire were scattered along the ground or clung to the piles of scorched wood. The red embers and smoke floated up into the pitch black sky as neither the stars nor moon were present. Realizing that standing in the snow waiting to freeze to death was a waste of time, Naruto grabbed one of the pieces of wood that was on fire and begun to walk. With no real sense of direction just the simple thought of 'better than just standing around' driving the blonde.

Yet as he walked, Naruto couldn't help but an unnerving feeling in his gut. Like he wasn't supposed to be here and every step made him want to vomit. But for some reason he couldn't stop. It was like some presence was pushing him to keep walking despite every fiber of his being telling him not too. Naruto simply decided to do his best and suppress the feeling of utter dread and continue on his way. Well whatever 'his way' was by any chance.

Naruto, having walked for who knows how long, eventually came upon a cluster of more crumbling buildings and more pits of fire. But as Naruto walked through the devastation he couldn't help but notice that there was another presence here. He could feel eyes looking at him with judgement and loathing. How any other living being could be here was beyond Naruto. But as long as they didn't act upon those emotions Naruto would just ignore them and keep walking.

"Why...why didn't you help me Naruto?"

Naruto stopped walking as the ghostly moaning of women echoed. It couldn't be _her_ , it was impossible. Naruto turned around slowly to see who or what was the source of the voice. His gaze eventually fell upon a silhouetted figure standing behind on of the pits of fire. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the figure as he raised his torch.

"Who are you and how do you know my name?"

The silhouetted figure began to walk through the flames.

"You left me to burn. Why, why didn't you help me Naruto?"

"Who in the hell are you-"

Naruto couldn't finished his sentence as the figure stepped out of the fire. His eyes widen in shock as he began taking a few steps back.

The woman's horrific appearance nearly made Naruto vomit up the contents of his stomach. The entire left side of the women was a mass of charred flesh, exposed muscles, and black bones visible for everyone to see. The woman's clothing was similar to Naruto, but with the exception of torn fabric showing burn sores across the right side of her body and black scorch marks. Only a few strands of brown hair and pale skin remained on her face as melted skin covered the majority of her head. The women's single emerald colored eye glared at Naruto as she lifted her left arm and pointed at him.

"You left me to burn. Why didn't you save us Naruto?"

Naruto was petrified at the woman standing before him. She was supposed to be back in the Imperium, buried six feet under in an Imperial cemetery. This wasn't Ophelia, the former medic and tough mother of his old team, that _thing_ was something else. And that thing had him backing away from it. Naruto wanted to run, but his legs couldn't or wouldn't respond.

"Where you going Naruto? Never thought you'd run away from a burnt corpse."

Naruto stopped as the gruff masculine voice spoke up from behind him. A large shadow was cast over him by the light of the fire. Naruto turned around and looked up to see a towering man standing over him.

The man was covered in from head to toe in heavy plate mail armor with chain-mail clothing underneath. His head was covered by sallet helmet that only showed his silver eyes filled with disappointment. Yet the most remarkable feature was the burnt gaping cavity in the middle of his chest. The man's name was Henrik, the battering ram of Naruto's team and the man known to break through fortress like paper.

Naruto had every reason to be afraid of the man-no this _thing_. Just as that creature impersonating Ophelia wasn't his actual teammate. Naruto begun to feel the fright slowly being replaced by rage. His the nails of his clench fists dug into the wood of the torch and his palm. Whoever was playing this trick on him was going to pay.

Henrik crossed his arms, "Hmm clenched fists, overly tense muscles, and a death glare. I thought showing your emotions was beaten out of you during basic training? Absolutely pathetic Naruto, maybe if you paid more attention in training you would've been able to stop me dying with a hole in my chest."

Naruto jumped a short distance backwards away from both Henrik and Ophelia.

"Get the fuck away from me monster." Naruto said, "I don't care what you are or where you came from. But I will kill you for desecrating the memories of my friends."

"Friends also don't insult each other Naruto." A smooth silky voice of a man called out to the blonde. "But then again a true friend wouldn't allow their comrades to die."

Naruto cursed silently as another voice called out to him. Who the hell were these beings and how were they getting the jump on him? Naruto completely turned around and pointed his torched towards the new figure.

The man standing before Naruto was by far the most different in appearance then the other two. He was covered in the standard dark red and yellow Imperial combat robes with black gloves and boots. The red hood the man was wearing covered most of his head, allowing only his face with a trimmed short beard and golden eyes to be seen. In truth if it wasn't for the multiple piece of rebar sticking through the man's body Naruto would have been congratulated the creature's ability to mimic his friend's appearance so accurate. But Naruto knew that Omar, his team's saboteur and infiltrator, would never say that to a friend.

Naruto couldn't help but smirked at the Omar impostor.

"Nice try creature, but I know Omar would never say something like that. He didn't talk like that to me when I accidentally set off an explosion that got shrapnel in his right arm. And I know he wouldn't guilt trip me over his death." Naruto's smirk vanished as his eyes narrowed. "Now you'll give me a straight answer now creature. Where the hell am I and who the hell are all of you?!"

"I can't believe how easy you'd forget about us Naruto. And for what, a one way ticket back to the nations that deemed us outcasts? I believed that you'd understand kid, guess I overestimated again."

Unyielding rage had completely replaced the terrified feeling within Naruto. His shivering breath no longer just from the cold air but from using every ounce of willpower not to lash out at these things and bash their heads in with his torch. Naruto could feel the blood running down his palms from his nails borrowing into his skin. These things just had to imitate _him_ didn't they? Well that was the last straw, these things were going to die. Though he might as well see how their copy of his ex-team leader was.

Turning around, Naruto saw the man that was once the leader of the old team. His spiky black hair was tied up by white cloth headband that covered his left eye. His clothes consisted of a leather cuirass and gauntlets over a white shirt and khaki pants tucked into black boots. The broad sword Naruto knew well from his spars with the man was strapped to his back and sheathed. Takeda Mizushima starred at Naruto with his sapphire colored eye filled with disappointment.

"Was it worth it Naruto? To return to all the ridicule and ostracizing of your village. The price our team paid for you to be noticed by the Praetor to be sent on this mission." Takeda shook his head, "You're no different from the same people who exiled us."

Naruto had enough of what this impostor was saying. The blonde charged at Takeda with his torch ready to strike the man. But before he could even get close enough to attack Takeda, Ophelia, and Henrik all leaped over him and landed at Omar's side. Naruto stumbled in his run but didn't fall down. Naruto quickly turned around and glared at the impostors. These beings weren't lazy about their disguises. If each one of them learned how to imitate his fallen teammate's combat abilities then Naruto would be in massive trouble. But that didn't matter to him though, he was still going to bash their brains in until they were mush.

"Why don't you all just stand still? Make it easier for me to kill you four."

Omar sighed as he shook his head.

"An utter shame Naruto. It seems the war has clearly rattled your mind. I'm glad I died then rather than seeing you become this much of a savage."

"Shut up!"

Naruto charged once again at the small group only to have them leaping out of the way again.

"Your emotions are clouding your skills and mind Naruto." Henrik said, "Absolutely horrid, wouldn't you agree Ophelia?"

"Yes…" Ophelia groaned

Naruto grind his teeth against each other and his arms began trembling in rage. How dare they desecrate the memories of his team? If they continue to play this damn game with him having them clubbed to death would be the least of their worries. Naruto saw them standing where he once stood.

Takeda stepped forward, "It doesn't have to be like this Naruto. We can help you make sure you'll never have to see no more friends or comrades die in front of you."

"You four chose to disguise yourselves as my former comrades, my closest friends, and decided to insult me in my face about their deaths." Naruto spat at them, "So why should I listen to any of you or want your help?"

Takeda raised his right arm, "Because Naruto if you accept our help no one, loved ones or strangers, will have to suffer again. People like them." And in one motion snapped his fingers.

The pits of fire erupted in a torrent of flames that shot upwards to the sky. The intensity of the fire forced Naruto to drop the torch and bring up his to arms to shield his face from the heat. The pillars of fire, almost just as quickly as they were create, dispersed into a blanket or orange, red, and yellow that covered the sky. Feeling the intensity heat beginning to fade away Naruto lowered his arms away from his face. But once he saw his surroundings utter dismay and shock filled his body.

All around Naruto stood hundreds, maybe thousands, of both men and women encircling him. The first feature he notice about the crowd was that each person was wearing ether the standard military uniform of the Imperium, a metal chest piece and gauntlets over khaki clothing, or the improvised heavy fur coats and hats wore by the rebels during the Northern Uprising. Each individual face was unique, no one looking like the other among the crowd. Their collective expressionless gaze all directed at Naruto who started to tremble worse than the cold air could ever affect him.

Naruto could help but fear for himself as he looked back and forth at the people around him in panic. A flurry of questions popped into Naruto's mind. Who were these people, how did they get here, and why were they here? Those were only a few questions that filled Naruto's thoughts as he tried to make sense of situation. There was no doubt in his mind that he could take out a fair amount of these things, but there was no chance he could defeat them all. Especially the four beings impersonating his teammates, Naruto couldn't tell why but he could feel a powerful malevolent force radiating off of them

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts however when out of the corner of his eye he saw a large fire ball heading towards him. Naruto jumped back and preformed a rapid series of hand signs. Little room to maneuver and hostiles all around, ha had to make this count.

 _ **Water Style: Rapid Scatter Shot**_

Dozens of baseball sized bullets made of water shot out of Naruto's mouth and flew towards the ball of fire. Unfortunately for the blonde once a shot connected with the fire ball the projectile instantly evaporated into steam. Naruto gawked at his failed effort to stop the attack. Damn it, why wasn't he blessed with an affinity for water jutsu. Yet as Naruto watched the projectile closed in, he couldn't help but notice how the ball of fire was changing shape.

Streaks of yellow formed into a sharp rows of teeth. The orange flames transformed into the shape of a long and narrow head of a canine with two long ears. The small traces of red formed into two spheres that Naruto thought looked like a pair of eyes. Naruto was overwhelmed by dread and furious anger that resonated off of the flames. It felt like hatred incarnate with it all being focused on Naruto. The last conscious thing Naruto saw was the fire ball opening its 'jaws' with it 'eyes' glaring down at him filled with hunger.

And just like that, everything went to black.

* * *

(The Wandering Hermit Hotel, Konoha)

Naruto awoke sprawled out in his bed to a cold sweat and deep exhausting breaths as he was greeting by the sight of his hotel rooms wooden plank roof. Pushing the blanket aside, Naruto sat up on his bed and looked around the small room. Naruto closed his eyes and brought two fingers up to the face before letting out a small burst of chakra. After a moment of holding said position, Naruto brought his hand back down and opened his eyes to examine the room. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary Naruto let out a sigh and fell backing into the bed. These damn dream were getting worse and worse.

The Kyubi, or the overgrown poodle as Naruto often referred to it, had become increasingly relentless in its attempts to take control of the Uzumaki's soul and mind. In truth the fox demon has always tried everything in its power to take control ever since he was a child and even during his training with the dragons. But ever since the Northern Uprising the Kyubi's methods became much more sadistic. Creating imitations of his old team and other fallen souls Naruto witness during the war to weaken his resolve while the demon tempted him with false promises of power to help those in need. The Kyubi enjoyed attacking Naruto in his dreams where he wasn't aware enough to fight back properly. Thankfully he had learn how to mentally block out dreams like that, even though an occasional dream may slip through.

The sound of the door opening caught Naruto's attention. Naruto turned his head to see Joshua standing in the doorway of the room carrying a small box tied with a small rope in his arms. Naruto's gaze kept shifting between the box and Joshua's apathetic bandaged face.

"Your awake, that's good." Joshua said, "Blackwall, Ulysses, and I are waiting in the living room for you."

"Alright, give me a few minutes to get dress and I'll be right out." Naruto got out of the bed and stretched. "What's in the box?"

Joshua shrugged his shoulders as he placed the box down on the ground near the side of the door.

"I don't know, but the deliver said it was for you. I had to stop Blackwall from opening it up right then and there."

"Thanks Joshua."

Joshua nodded, "No thanks are needed Naruto. Just hurry up and get dress, we're suppose too meet the Praetor Maximus at the Hokage's office soon." The bandaged man left the room, closing the door right behind him.

Naruto changed out of his pajamas, a basic black tang top green colored boxers, and into his standard clothing. His wardrobe had changed little since coming to Konoha with only the occasional tear on his grey shirt or grass/dirt stain on his khaki pants. Naruto did visit a wash house to get his clothes clean once, but gave up on it after how much Jiraiya put him through in training. Naruto did silently cursed that his armor was destroyed, the quartermaster at the fort he was assigned too wouldn't be happy to find out one of his best pieces of armor got destroyed. At least he got a new mask from the old man that allowed him to keep his identity a secret.

Once finished putting on his clothes Naruto's focused shifted to the box Joshua left. Naruto pulled out one of his knifes and proceed to walk over to his package. Kneeling down Naruto saw on the top of the box that there was a message written for him in black ink. Naruto was grateful that he didn't teach no one of the team how to read kanji, no reason for them to go poking around in his business. Though Naruto did have to admit they were fast learners when it came to speaking the language.

"Hey brat," Naruto said, reading the message out load, "sorry I couldn't train you all the days we agreed upon. I hope this little gift makes up for it. You have no idea how hard it was to get one of these. Love, the most irresistible man of the Elemental Nations, Jiraiya the Toad Sage."

Naruto couldn't help but roll his eyes and shake his head at the message. He was going to miss pervy-sage, it was like saying goodbye to an annoying little dog that you had to keep an eye on or else it would eat all your food and piss everywhere. Naruto knew he would be lying to himself by saying he wouldn't miss the old pervert and some of the other shinobi in Konoha. It was too bad he had to leave back to the Imperium when the chunin exams were over. Maybe he would return one day after he had changed the Imperium and live out his days in his birthplace. But that was then and this is now. Naruto cut the rope that sealed the box and tossed the rope to the side and placed the blade back in his pocket. Naruto opened the box and what he found in their surprised him.

Folded neatly inside the box was an ANBU uniform sitting on top of a piles of clothes. Naruto was speechless at the sight as he took the thick grey flak jacket and steel arm guards out of the box and placed them to the side. Memories of the masked shinobis' that protect him from the violent mobs popped into his mind. Never in all his life did Naruto think he would be wearing the same uniform as the people who protected him as a child. Hopefully he could live up to the standard the ANBU do. Naruto returned his gaze to the rest of the contents of the box; mostly black shirts, new khaki pants, and one pair of forearm length black gloves in the cardboard container. Naruto was sure his team and Praetor Maximus could wait just a few more minutes.

It didn't take long for Naruto to change into his new clothes, and boy did they feel comfortable. His black shirt and gloves were underneath the grey flak jacket and arm guards. The pressed khakis were tucked into his polished steel-toed boots. The red clothe headband given to him by Takeda was tied around his forehead with the fox mask given to him by the Hokage was placed firmly onto his face. Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled, not since the day the Dragons sent him back to the mortal world did he felt like he could take on anything the world threw at him.

Just you wait Konoha, Naruto Uzumaki has finally returned.

* * *

 **So yeah, I never thought I'd returned to this story. When I announced was abandon and up for adoption, I was serious. But after some personal thinking, and that I hate leaving things unfinished, I decided to continue my most viewed story. I hope this new chapter is good enough to welcome those of you who have been following** _ **Ancient Fury**_ **for a while back.**

 **Sorry I skipped the month of training for everyone. I believe that training montages are better done visually then in written description. The song I used was based off of the song "Paddy's Lamentation" with a few altered words. If you want to listen to the song then I suggest looking up David Kincaid on YouTube. And don't worry I most likely won't be putting any more songs in this story.**

 **Also while I was looking back at previous chapters to refresh my memory about what happened, I realized something. Many of my early chapters, especially chapters 1 through 4, really suck. Bad writing, dialogue, and many other problems are clearly obvious. So I decided that I will be going back and rewriting many chapters to fix the problems. So when you get a notification about my story and see that there isn't a new chapter posted, you now know why.**

 **That's all I really have to say folks. I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next update.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N** **: Author's Notes**

 **Well it's been a while and first let me say that I'm sorry for taking so long with my updates. None of them are abandon, I'm actually half way done with both the Naruto, Fallout, and DBZ stories while also getting ready to upload two RWBY stories (a One-shot and a regular length story.) I felt like I should inform all of you what's been going on behind the scenes. And there are two main reasons why updating has been taking so long.**

 **The first reason is I finally got a new job after seven months of unemployment. So now I'm finally making money and able to financially support myself again. But it is taking a good chunk of my time due to summer being the busiest time of the year. And by busy I'm mean I go in at 0800 hours (8:00am) and don't leave till 1900 hours (7:00pm). Thankfully I will be making enough money to renew my subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud so I can start making YouTube videos and artworks again. Possibly by September, if I'm lucky.**

 **The second, and bigger, reason is that I've joined up with a professional animation group as a Scriptwriter and Editor. I'm helping out with a 40 minutes OVA, and if it does well enough it becomes a series. I can't give an exact date because it's still in early production and we're getting everything copyrighted at the moment, but it is coming along. And don't worry, when it comes out I will announce it. Shameless self-promotion I know lol.**

 **That's basically it everyone, you all have a nice day and see you in the next update.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 9: Let the Games Begin

"Talking"

 **"** **Thinking"**

 ** _Attack/Jutsu_**

 _Flashback_

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, let's get on with the story.

* * *

(Hokage's Office, Konoha)

Sarutobi had seen many things in the seven decades he had been alive. He had saw, and lead, Konoha to become one of the strongest shinobi villages in not only the Land of Fire but perhaps in all of the Elemental Nations itself. He saw the rise and fall of many great clans and individuals that left a definite mark on the pages of history. And that wasn't even mentioning the amount of times rivals, known or hidden, had attempted to remove the Third Hokage from his seat of power. Yet in all of Sarutobi's life the man sitting across from him was something else.

The man was in his late fifties with fair but leathery skin. A receding hairline of salt and pepper hair sat on his head. He wore a very baggy, deep red, toga with gold trims that flowed down to his face with only his entire right arm being shown. His thin lips curled up into a natural smile, yet Sarutobi saw the man's light brown eyes were filled with curiosity rather than any sort of happiness. Praetor Maximus Titus Brutus, the supreme leader of all the Imperium's military, leaned back in his chair as he stared at Sarutobi.

"So what you're telling me is that Naruto Uzumaki, Vulpes Incluta, my subordinate was almost taken in to custody by your subordinates over an incident that happened during the boy's youth." Titus' velvety voice said, "If I may speak plainly, that sounded like a shit storm."

Sarutobi sighed, "It sure was. Thankfully the shinobi council has been rather quick to put the matter to rest. The civilian council however, they would've been up my ass for the past month if they found out. I've had to assign shinobi to watch over them to make sure they don't."

Titus chuckled, "You should've been born into the Imperium. If someone in the senate tried that with me they'd get sat down and talked too."

"And what if they kept doing it?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"…No, I guess I don't."

"Good." Titus said, "Now back to the matter of hand with Mr. Uzumaki. Will this incident cause any problems with the agreement our two nations made?"

Sarutobi shook his head.

"If the boy's identity remains a secret then there shouldn't be an issue."

"What has the boy done to warrant all this secrecy? Surely it cannot be that bad."

"It mostly has to deal with the boy's parentage more than anything." Sarutobi pulled out his tobacco pipe and lit it with a match. "Naruto's parents, especially his father, made a lot of enemies during the last great shinobi war. If the Lands of Earth and Lighting found out if he was among your ranks, they would want nothing to do with the Imperium or you. They might even send assassins to kill Naruto on the simple principle alone to end their greatest enemy's bloodline." Sarutobi took a long drag from his pipe. "As for Konoha, that's a bit more complicated. You see on the day Naruto was born a great demon attacked the village that resulted in many people losing their lives, including my successor. Though I wish it wasn't the case, the villagers associated Naruto with the demon attack and blamed him for all the deaths. That blame eventually forced him to leave and get caught by human traffickers before my shinobi could bring him back."

Sarutobi sat back in his chair and took another drag from his pipe as Titus processed the information. The Third Hokage inwardly breathe a sigh of relief. Naruto was safe for the time being. The life of a shinobi, solider, immunes, or whatever Naruto was, is difficult enough. Naruto didn't needed to be exploited for political gains. The boy has dealt with enough hardships in his life. He didn't need anymore.

"This information is certainly something to ponder on Lord Hokage." The Praetor said, "Though I do have a question to ask, if I may?"

Sarutobi nodded, "Ask away Praetor."

"What would be the reaction be if Mr. Uzumaki returned to Konoha?"

Sarutobi's eyebrow rose as he took his tobacco pipe out of his mouth. What was this man getting at?

"I'm going to need more clarification before answering that question."

Titus smiled, "of course, I shouldn't have expected you to know the ways of my nations military. First off, from my understanding once a person becomes a shinobi or kunoichi their essentially in active service until death, discharged, or retired. Am I correct?"

"You are."

"Well in the Imperium things are a little different. We used the three examples too, but we also implement another form of enlistment called conscription." Tito continued, "If a man or woman is caught committing a crime they have two options; ether go to prison or join the military. If they join the military they have to remain for a certain amount of time till it's deemed that they've paid for their crime."

"And what does this have to do with Naruto?"

"I'm getting to that Lord Hokage, just be patient." Titus replied, "Now when it comes to Immunes or others who can use mana or, chakra as you call it, are different circumstances. They usually stay in the military till they die in action or are old enough not to be considered a threat. We do this because we don't want such a powerful individual running around and causing trouble for city guards then needed. However Naruto is a special case, he was conscripted not recruited. I won't bore you with the detail but it basically means that I must release him because he has paid for his crimes. It wasn't until after we finished his paperwork for conscription did the frumentarii learn he could manifest mana."

"Can't you just make an alteration that allows him the same treatment as the rest of your immunes?"

Sarutobi didn't know what made him say that, but he defiantly wanted to kick himself for it. He would want nothing more than to see Naruto return to Konoha. If the blonde wanted to of course. Though the effects of what would happen were numerous. And Sarutobi knew that most of them would be negative.

"You would think so, but that's not the case." Titus spoke bringing Sarutobi out of his thoughts. "Ancient laws tie my hands on the matter. So that's why once this business with the chunin exams is over and we return to the Imperium I will inform him of the situation." Titus leaned further towards Sarutobi. "But you haven't answered my question yet. Will you accept Mr. Uzumaki if he were to return to Konoha?"

Sarutobi sat back and thought on the question. Sure there would be massive backlash and opposition to Naruto returning to Konoha, but there was a way around it. Sometimes rouge shinobi or kunoichi, otherwise known as missing-nin, would arrive and attempt to join a village by trading their skills for protection from bounty hunters. Sarutobi was certain he could do the same with Naruto to make sure the civilian council from torturing him further. Though it would still have him lead a life where death or torturous capture was commonplace. But would Naruto even want that?

"It would be difficult, but yes. Naruto can return to Konoha. That is if he wants to, I will not force him to do anything."

Titus leaned back into his chair with the smile still on his face.

"Good. I might not know the boy well or even care for him as much as you do Lord Hokage. But I'd hate to see such a promising talent go to waste."

It was just then a series of knocks caught the attention of the two older men. The doors opened as six individuals stepped into the room. Two of the individuals, the ones who opened the door, wore full red tinted plate armor with polished chain-mail clothing underneath. The other four were all the members of Blackwall's team. The four men stopped and saluted the Hokage and the Praetor Maximus by placing their right fists over their hearts.

Blackwall stepped forward.

"My lord Praetor Maximus and Hokage, my team and I have arrived per your instructions."

Titus replied, "As is expected Blackwall. Though I do have to ask why Mr. Uzumaki possesses a different uniform then the last time I saw him."

"A gift from the lord Hokage my Praetor." Naruto stepped forward, "My original armor and uniform were destroyed during the exams. The Hokage gave me the uniform of his elite guard as an apology and a gift."

"Does this included the backlash we will face from the masses if your identity would be revealed?" Naruto's eyes widen in shock as from underneath his mask. How did the Praetor learn of this? Yet before Naruto could continue Titus raised his right hand to stop the blonde. "The Hokage informed me of your past with Konoha. We can discuss it later if at our leisure if you wish."

Naruto simply nodded as he stepped back and rejoined his team. He silently hoped that the Praetor's new information wouldn't come back and bite him in the ass. Though that might not matter when tomorrow during the tournament.

Titus got up from his chair and stretched his limbs.

"I'm sorry that I have to cut this meeting short lord Hokage, but I need to speak with my subordinates. The lack of communication between them and myself have been sparse so I want a full report personally."

Sarutobi nodded, "Of course Praetor, go ahead. I actually need to check if all the preparations are ready for tomorrow."

"Then I leave you too it Sarutobi. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"And you as well Titus."

And with those final words said Titus, along with Blackwall's team, departed from the Hokage's office and out into the halls with the two Praetorian guards following close by. the small group of imperials made their way through the corridors with only the sounds of their footsteps and the metal clanks of armor breaking the silence. The group eventually came to another door where two more Praetorian guardsmen were standing at attention near another large double door. The two guards saluted Titus and the rest before they opened the doors and the group proceeded into the room.

The decent sized room was rather basic in design with polished wood plank walls and floor. Three large windows on one side of the room allowed the full view of Konoha. The furniture was limited to three couches and a coffee table that rested in between them. Titus approached one of the couches and sat down on the cushioned seat. He turned to Blackwall's team and waves them over with his right hand.

"Come, sit. We have much to discuss."

Blackwall's team all walked towards the remaining couches; Ulysses and Blackwall sitting on one while Joshua and Naruto sitting on the other.

"Where should we begin my Praetor?" said Ulysses

"Let's start with the elephant in the room." Titus paused as he shifted his gaze between the four individuals sitting across from the elderly man. "The invasion of Konoha that will take place tomorrow during the tournament."

"What?!"

Naruto jumped up from the couch with shock and furious clearly being shown on his face. What the heck did Titus mean by 'The invasion of Konoha?' Was this whole mission just a ruse for an imperial invasion of the Land of Fire or the entire Elemental Nations themselves? No, the Imperial legions were still weak from the Northern Uprising, there would be no way the Imperium could hold any territory in the Elemental Nations for the long-term. Not only that but when the legion arrives it is never subtle. The shinobi of Konoha would have capture, torture, and possibly killed them before any legionnaires showed up.

"Is there a problem Mr. Uzumaki?"

Titus asked the speechless Naruto.

"I-I, but- yes of course there's a damn problem! You've just announced an invasion of Konoha in right in the Hokage's Building. You know, the building where his most elite shinobi are on constant patrol. Do you want us to be arrested?"

"My Praetorian guard placed a silencing rune inside the room. No one outside the room can hear us." Titus explained, "But why are you so concerned about this village? I thought you would resent them for the things they done during your childhood."

"I didn't think the old man would tell you so much."

"I knew about the situation before I arrived. The Hokage just filled in the minor details for me."

"Who told you?" Naruto asked

"I did." Everyone's eyes shifted over to Blackwall. His calm and stoic expression remaining. "What did you expect Naruto? Just keep quiet about how we had a standoff with the Hokage and his people? If so, then I'd never took you for a person who wants to be court martial."

"Not only that, but your distress clearly shows an emotional compromise."

Ulysses interjected that resulted in Naruto glaring at the dark skinned man. Yet before anything could escalate further Titus simply raised his right hand that caused everyone else in the room to stop what they were doing, with Naruto sitting back down on the couch.

"There's no reason to start arguing like children Ulysses." Titus said to his subordinates before turning to Naruto. "Now if were all done I want to hear Mr. Uzumaki's opinion on the invasion."

And once again, all the attention was brought back to Naruto.

"What do you want me to say sir, 'I want to see this village burn for the things they done when I was a kid?' Maybe when I was a little, but thankfully I had people who helped me moved past my anger." To which Naruto would always be thankful. If it weren't for the dragons he could have ended a very bitter person. "But what I feel doesn't really matter compared to the practical implications. If the Imperium enters another war right now would be disastrous. The army will be too exhausted to stop any revolt or uprising that might come afterwards."

Titus couldn't help but smirk at the blondes comments. The young man might have not been a native born to the Imperium, but his concern was well placed. Guess shedding blood for a country that took you in might do that to a person.

"Then I'm glad to inform you that we will be on the side on Konoha during the invasion."

"What?" Naruto muttered in disbelief.

Titus looked over to Blackwall who simply nodded.

"Nearly two weeks ago a man named Orochimaru approached our team and offered us to join in the joint invasion by the Sound and Sand villages during the tournament." Blackwall said, "He made a lot of bullshit promises."

"Yes, promises that would've been disastrous for us." Titus added, "We may have an easy time taking the Land of Fire but once their allies get dragged in, there's no way we can win. The Sand and Sound will fall in weeks once the Land of Lightning mobilizes. And if they mobilize then the Lands of Earth and Waves will too. No one wants to get caught with their pants down. A tad bit crude, but effective enough."

Naruto, despite the fact that his home village would be destroyed, was actually impressed by this Orochimaru's plan. Creating a catalyst to set off the next great shinobi war with a battered Imperium getting pulled in conflict once again. If that wasn't a way to take out any potential enemies then Naruto had no idea what was.

"Alright we know what's going to happen tomorrow. What are we going to do about it?"

"Stop it of course Mr. Uzumaki." Titus replied, "The attack is going to start during that Sasuko Uchiha and Gaara's match. So don't exhaust yourself during your match against this Neji Hyuga. After which I want you and Joshua to make way to Blackwall's location up in the stands. Once the attack starts you three help out the Konoha shinobi in the arena any way possible. Once the location is secure make your way towards the Hokage and I to help fight Orochimaru. He will be disguised as part of the Kazekage's entourage I may not know that man's strength but I'd rather not leave it to chance."

Blackwall, Naruto, and Joshua all nodded in agreement about their assignments. Yet it was Ulysses who decided to speak up about his lack of being mention in Titus' plans.

"Praetor what will I be doing during the invasion?"

"You will be joining the rest of Praetorian guard, sixty men in all, outside the village after this meeting. You all will be with the Sand-Sound force approaching the Northside of the river. But instead of helping them once the attack begins you all will turn and attack them. After that you'll help the Konoha shinobi defend the village by any means. There's no way they can stand against the Imperium's finest."

"They won't know what hit them Praetor."

As the conversation continued between the four Imperials, Naruto drowned out their noise with his own thoughts. On one hand he was glad that he wouldn't be spending his whole day fighting people and waiting to fight other people. Yet on the other hand he would be fighting for his life in a surprise invasion, again. It was probably too late warn the Hokage about the invasion. Informing the old man would not only possibly tipping off any Sound or Sand infiltrators, but putting Titus' praetorian guards at risk and their whole counter attack at risk. So much for the tournament.

Why couldn't things just be simple?

* * *

(Konoha training grounds)

Today was the big day and Naruto was as ready as he ever could be. Though how many people could prepare for both a match they have been preparing for a month and an invasion that would determine the fate of an entire continent. It wasn't an easy night's rest that's for sure. He kept waking up constantly throughout the night from the seer anxiety about today. Not since Tsaritsyn had Naruto been this overwhelmed by the amount of fighting he would be experiencing so soon.

Maybe that was the reason our blonde protagonist decided to take the scenic route through the training grounds towards the stadium rather than through the quicker streets of Konoha. The tranquility of the vast forest brought some piece of mind. The lack of people in the area even allowed Naruto to remove his mask. It reminded him during his time training with the dragons. The sound of rushing rivers, wind shaking the leaves of trees, the birds singing their songs, along with a variety of other pleasant noises. Naruto hoped that this area wouldn't get too destroyed during the invasion.

Naruto continued walking through the forest till a womanly figure appeared in the distance. Though curious Naruto merely shrugged his shoulders and placed his mask back onto his face as he kept walking. As Naruto got closer the woman's appearance became much clearer. She wore a violet yukata with white flower patterns and sash tied around her waist. Long flowing blue hair like the night sky-

Wait, blue hair?

The woman turned around to show that it was Hinata Hyuga. Her soft feature like a porcelain doll were amplified by light touch of makeup.

Hinata sighed, "I t-thought I told my father d-don't need an escort. You d-don't need to keep looking after me-"

Naruto cut her off by raising his hand. "Woah, I wasn't sent by your father." He removed his mask. "See, just your friendly neighborhood pariah."

Hinata blushed as she immediately bowed.

"I-I'm so sorry Naruto-san! I didn't realize who you were."

"Then that means my disguise is working-" Naruto paused as he noticed Hinata called him by his real name. "Where did you learn that name?"

Hinata stood back up.

"Kurenai-sensei t-told me about your real i-identity and the Hokage's orders." Hinata begun hyperventilating, "I d-didn't mean to offend you Naruto-san I was trying to- ohh I-I did it again didn't I?"

"Hey it's fine okay. Just caught me off guard as all." Naruto inwardly sighed in relief, not a smart move to give the heiress of the most powerful clan in Konoha a panic attack. "So, what are you doing out here Hinata? Shouldn't you already be at the stadium?"

"Y-yes, but I choose this way to clear my head."

"Yeah I know what you mean."

"Nervous about fighting my cousin?"

"Yup." Naruto said, **"That and a big ass invasion that's happening today."**

"W-W-Would you like to walk with me N-Naruto-san?" Hinata barely managing to speak. "I-I wouldn't mind the company."

Naruto smiled down at Hinata as he placed his mask back on his face.

"Sure Hinata, I would love too."

And with everything said, the blonde pariah and the Hyuga heiress continued on their way. The two continued to walk through the forest in comfortable, if awkward, silence. Naruto, with his arms behind his head, was too occupied with his own thoughts on today's events and how to deal with them to pay much attention to ether the nature around him or his companion. Hinata on the other hand couldn't stop taking quick glances at Naruto.

Three days after her match with Neji, Hinata woke up in a hospital bed with Kurenai and a nurse by her side. Her injuries, they told her, were near fatal with many of her chakra points and vital organs damaged. It would've been the death of her if Neji had actually succeed in striking her heart if it weren't for Naruto jumping in at the last possible second. Well that explained the other figure Hinata saw before she went unconscious.

For the last few weeks Hinata had wondered why Naruto did it. Was it out of altruism, or a simple reaction? These thoughts plagued Hinata's mind as she was confined to her hospital bed with only her sensei, teammates, and little sister visiting every other day. Though she would never expect to meet the blonde one-on-one anytime soon. As daughter of one of the major clan heads of Konoha she would be required at the closing ceremony to honor all those who survived the trails of the Chunin Exams. Hinata assumed she would get her chance then, but now is probably a good time as any.

"Naruto-san can I-I ask you a question?"

Naruto looked over at Hinata.

"Sure Hinata, ask away."

"Why did you save me during my match?"

 **"** **Knew this would come up at some point."** Naruto thought to himself, "Well it was just kind of a reaction you know. I saw what Neji was going to do to you and stopped it."

"Oh…"

Hinata muttered. So it was only a reaction then?

"Oh?"

Hinata blushed in embarrassment from Naruto's reply. Did he think she was ungrateful for his help?

"I-I-I mean it's not l-like I don't appreciate wh-what you did for me. I-it's just with o-o-out you I wouldn't be he-here talking with you. N-Neji wo-would have been executed. But a-also my little sister Hanabi would've- I-I'm just ram-rambling now aren't I?"

Hinata expected for Naruto to point it out and move on. But instead, our whiskered blonde, chuckled.

"It's perfectly fine Hinata. I know you were just being curious." Naruto said, "Besides, it always a win when I make a cute girl ramble."

At the mention of being called cute, Hinata's face turned to the brightest red possible and begun feeling a bit light headed. The man who saved her, and who wasn't that bad looking ether, had just called her cute. By kami she felt like she would feint any second.

"Hey Hinata can I ask you something? I've been wondering about it for the past month too."

"S-S-Sure Naruto-san."

"Why was Neji going to kill too? Aren't you two family?"

"Ohh, that's…complicated."

Naruto noticed Hinata's demeanor changed from one of embarrassment to that of shame.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No you didn't. B-but this isn't a pleasant topic."

"If you don't want to talk about it we don't have too."

"No. You made a promise to fight my cousin for what he done to me. The least I could do is tell you why he hates me." Hinata said, "Ten years ago, when I was seven, Konoha and Kumogakure finally put aside all their grievances and hatred for each other and became military allies. A group of diplomats from Kumo came to sign the documents and afterwards the celebrations begun that night at the Hokage's mansion. But while that was going on a Kumo shinobi snuck into the Hyuga compound and attempted to abduct me."

"Why would they try to abduct you?"

"Breeding stock. Kumogakure always wanted my family's kekkei genkai and they've been trying to for decades. They must've thought it would be a perfect cover to abduct the Hyuga Heiress while the celebrations went on."

"What happened next?"

"My father and a small number of Hyuga stopped the Kumo shinobi in the middle of the act and killed him."

"Did Kumo know about this? How did the Hokage react?"

"Offically Kumo said he acted on his own will. But I always had my suspicions though." Hinata continued, "As for the Hokage's reaction, he simply demanded reparations from Kumo or else. Kumo agreed and everyone were quick enough to put the matter to rest."

"So how does this include Neji?"

"Well during the scuffle with the Kumo shinobi, we lost one of our own." Hinata stayed silent for a moment as she struggled to say the truth. "It was my uncle Hizashi, Neji's father."

So Hinata's uncle, Neji's father, died trying to protect his niece. Naruto still really didn't see any reason why Neji would hate her. Unless he blamed her for his father's death-

"I think I understand it Hinata. I might not like it, but I get it."

An awkward silence appeared between the two as neither knew how to continue the conversation to a more pleasant topic.

"So…we should get going or else we'll be late for the tournament." Naruto gave a small chuckle. "I'd rather not be accused of whisking away the Hyuga Heiress and getting skinned alive by your father."

Hinata smiled at Naruto.

"Sure thing Naruto-kun."

* * *

(Chunin Exam Stadium, Konoha)

Naruto stood in the middle of the arena with the other final participants, minus a certain Uchiha, of the exams. Naruto had to admit, the size of the stadium was impressive. High stone walls with private boxes cut into the rock for the wealthy and important public figures. The seating for the regular spectators were covered by an orange tile roof that went around the entire stadium. The inside of the arena itself was basic; a plain dirt field with trees and bushes near the walls. And looking over the whole stadium was the Hokage's personal seats, a single square tower with the same orange tile roof. The stadium reminded Naruto of the grand colosseum back in the imperial capital. Though this stadium was in much better condition than the colosseum.

Naruto inwardly sighed, would he even see the capital again?

After the meeting about the invasion Titus pulled Naruto aside and told him about how his conscription period is almost done. Naruto knew that his time as a conscript was coming to an end. But it was the possibility of returning to Konoha so soon that had him perplexed. He had always assumed after the conscription period was done he would be immediately placed into the army as a full-fledged immune. But with the news about Titus not being allowed to do that, and even more surprisingly old man Sarutobi allowing him to returned if he wanted, left Naruto conflicted.

Should he return to Konoha?

There wasn't anyone back in the Imperium for Naruto to return too. All four of them died in the uprising and were buried six feet under. Many of the legionnaires he was meant to work with kept their distance with only their officers telling him what they needed done. Ulysses and Joshua were alright, professional while working together but nothing beyond that. Even Blackwall, who Naruto meet briefly in the small town of Kyiv, was little more than an acquaintance. But he had purpose. A purpose that would easily be left behind by returning to Konoha.

"Participants of the Chunin Exams!"

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the booming voice that echoed throughout the stadium. Looking up he saw the Hokage standing with Titus to his right and the Kazekage, the leader of the sand village, to his left. The old man sure had a pair of lungs.

"Let me first congratulate all of you who have made it this far. You have all made your respected villages proud. Take pride in that you now stand here where countless others failed. But don't think you are done yet." The Hokage continued, "The third and final part of the exams will require each of you to fight against each other to show us that your fighting skills are competent enough to become chunin. Now go, prove yourself to your leaders, comrades, and civilians that you have what it takes to defend your homes!"

The entire stadium erupted into applause at the end of the Hokage's speech. The three leaders went back and took their respected seats and guards. Titus looked over at Sarutobi.

"A fine enough speak lord Hokage." Titus said, "No orator by any means, but it got the job done." Titus turned back to the crowd and waved at them with a smile.

"What's an orator Praetor Maximus Titus?" The soft, near whisper-like, voice of the Kazekage speaking up. "I can't say I'm familiar with that word."

"Just a fancy term for a public speaker." Titus replied, "My people take pride in our speaking etiquette. Such is needed when trying to sway the masses, colleagues, and rivals."

As the leaders were conversing with each other, a Konoha shinobi walked into the arena with a clipboard in his hands. The man wore the standard jounin outfit of Konoha with a bandana covering his dark brown shoulder length hair and chewing on a Senbon needle. He stood before the line of genin, inspecting them for only a moment.

"My name is Genma Shiranui, and I'll be the one in charge of third, and final, phase of the exams. Now before we start there are a few important things I need to tell you all about." Genma looked down at his clipboard. "I assume you all know the rules, tournament style brackets; you lose a fight your eliminated, if you win you go on to the next round, and so on and so forth till there's only one left standing. You all got that?"

All the contestants nodded their heads.

"Good. Now due to some situations the past month the roster for the tournament has been changed. These are the new matches that will be taking place today as followed…"

 _Vulpes Incluta vs Neji Hyuga_

 _Sasuko Uchiha vs Gaara of Sunagakure_

 _Joshua of Judah vs Shino Abruame_

 _Shikamaru Nara vs Temari of Sunagakure_

 _Sai of Konoha vs Kankuro of Sunagakure_

 **"** **Wait, I thought I had extra match right after with Dosu?"** Shikamaru raised his hand. "What happened to that Dosu guy?"

"Ohh, Dosu Kinuta sent in a letter last week saying he forfeited the tournament and returned to his village." Genma replied, "Now if there's no more questions let's get on with the matches. Will everyone except Vulpes Incluta and Heji Hyuga please leave the arena and report to the combatant's box."

All the genin, except Naruto and Neji, made their way out of the arena. Shikamaru gave Naruto a quick 'good luck' before rejoining the other competitors.

Kankuro and Temari joined their younger brother as they walked out of the arena. Gaara paid no attention to them as he kept looking and walking straight ahead. Temari leaned towards Kankuro.

"We got lucky." The blonde haired kunoichi whispered. "If they figured out what happened to Dosu we'd be in deep shit right now."

"Mother needed her fill or she would've been restless."

Gaara spoke up and looking back at his, now scared, siblings.

"N-n-no we understand Gaara." Kankuro shuttered, "It's just with the whole hospital incident we don't want to get disqualified."

Temari jumped in to add to Kankuro's statement.

"Yeah and we wouldn't want to miss the real fight would we Gaara?"

Gaara thought about Temari's words for a moment before turning his head away from them.

"Fine. But when everything starts, stay out of my way."

* * *

Naruto watched as the last of the other contestants left the arena. He turned back to see that Neji and Genma have already distance themselves from him. They sure didn't waste any time getting the match underway.

Naruto could see the smug smirk plastered onto Neji's face.

"Why don't you already forfeit and save us both the trouble Vulpes." Neji berating continued, "Or would you rather want my cousin to see her would-be savior be humiliated? Either way I'm going to win. Fate has already decided the outcome of this fight."

"Sorry, unless you're willing to apologize to Hinata, I'm going to enjoy beating you to a pulp."

Neji snorted in disgust.

"Apologize to that weakling? You should've let me finish what I did last month. Spare my uncle and clan the shame of such a disappointing heir."

Naruto could only shake his head at Neji's response. How could he harbor so much hate for his cousin? Sure Neji's father died protecting Hinata, but this amount of contempt wasn't natural. There's more to this then what Hinata told him.

"If you two are done I'd like to get on with the match." Genma said breaking their conversation. The older shinobi took a deep breath and filling his lung and vocal cords with chakra. "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the first match of the chunin exams tournament between Vuples Incluta and Neji Hyuga." The crowd cheered as Genma pointed to his right at Neij. "To my right is Neji Hyuga. Genin of Konohagakue, member of the Hyuga clan, and under the tutelage of Might Guy of Konoha." Genma lowered his right arm before pointing to Naruto with his left arm. "To my left is Vuples Incluta. Warrior of the western Imperium, veteran of the Northern Uprising, under the command of Blackwall-"

"Actually Shiranu-san I think there's a mistake with that information."

Genma turned towards Naruto, slightly glaring for being interrupted.

"And what's seems to be the matter Incluta-san?"

 **"** **Well here goes nothing…"** Naruto took a deep breath as he brought his hand to the mask. "My name is not Vuples Incluta."

And with one swift motion Naruto pulled off his mask. His face clear for everyone to see.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! Almost ten years ago I driven out of Konohagakure, my birthplace, on my birthday and taken by slavers. But now I've returned to show that your attempt all those years ago failed! Now watch as that frighten little boy you all ostracized defeat the Hyuga prodigy!"

* * *

 **First let me say sorry for this chapter. This chapter was supposed to come out last week but I got sick with strep throat and ammonia, even started spitting up blood for a few days, for almost three weeks. Thankfully I'm all better and I can begin catching up on everything. Second, I rushed the second part with Hinata's conversation and the whole start of the third phase of the exams. I may come back to this at a later point to fix it, no promises though.**

 **Also I changed the whole Naruto/Hinata conversation so we don't have that big exposition dump by Neji right in the middle of the fight like in the anime. And with this chapter ends the training phase of the Chunin Exams arc and we get back to the action.**

 **That's all I have left to say. I'll see you all in the next update…whenever that is.**


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